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Heart-training! in Sports 

My boy played High School soccer. He and I talked sometimes about how sports are a wonderful place to learn to apply his love for the Lord.

Ball control has glory. When we do something right, each ’move’ we make has glory also. Athletes can learn to exalt God with these things. Doing so, is to love Him. On a human level, we find physical energy when we do something well and we praise ourselves for it. The same is true with God, only better.

During the game, trust that you are exalting God with each move you make. Then, you won’t be dependant on the physical energy you need, humanly speaking, having to come from subtle forms of praise toward yourself. Play your sport to the praise of God’s glory, not your own (Ephesians 1:12). Please note: You have to believe that God is being exalted. Otherwise, you won’t find the energy in it.

The apostle Paul wrote about his own ministry, "...from sincerity...as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God." (2 Cor. 2:17). He also wrote, "To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles...so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 3:8-10). Just like us in sports, Paul loved exalting God before an audience. But, who were these ‘rulers and authorities’ that Paul was talking about? Three chapters later, he tells us, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Eph. 6:12). Paul was thrilled to exalt God. He was convinced that he was able to exalt God in the heavenly realms before both angelic and demonic rulers and authorities. When Paul exalted God, he had an audience. We do too.

Encourage your heart with this: "By my praise and dependence on God, I can exalt God in the heavenly realms, before an audience of both angelic and demonic rulers and authorities, even when nobody here sees." Play your game exalting God with how well you play your game. Trust you are exalting Him with how well you recover when you don’t do so well. God is watching and enjoying your dependence on Him.

That way, making a mistake or loosing the ball doesn’t have to drain you of energy! Knowing you can exalt God with each move takes the sting out of it when your opponent gets the best of you. When energy comes because you are thrilled to exalt God before an unseen audience, you will recover much quicker. Even if you do something wrong, you can still exalt God by your reaction to keep going hard. When you find energy, humanly speaking, from lifting the significance of God you don’t have to fight with psychological ups and downs during a game. You can come back hard because God is being exalted. You are believing it.

The pressure to perform in sports is so strong that often it overwhelms players to the point of fear. When you think you have to quench your thirst by exalting yourself then you will always have to play your game while fighting with fear. Fear results because of the possibility that you might not get to exalt yourself with the glory of making your next shot. If the pressure gets too great you will freeze up. You won’t perform well.

On the other hand, when your glory is to exalt God with your every move, good or bad, then you can’t loose! When you can’t loose fear can’t drain you of energy and decrease your level of play.

Praise is our role as priests who stand before the Lord. Being to the praise of His glory is why we are here! Just like the apostle Paul you can lift the significance of God before an audience of rulers and authorities. In doing so, you will love God more.

Again let me emphasize that you shouldn’t turn God’s presence into human pride. Keep the the inner ‘flow of praise’ to be outward and toward the Holy Spirit around you. Praise Him for what you would normally praise yourself; praise God for His adequacy, strength, power, goodness, kindness, knowledge, and glory.

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I am praying for the Lord's abundant blessing on your efforts to direct your heart toward Him.

Barry.

        Heart-training — Continued...

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(C) Barry Hall 1999

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