About the Sport Principle
The mat area, the pitch, the court, it needs to be owned. The top-level sports player will take time to familiarise themselves with the playing surface before the fixture. TV cameras often show players taking a stroll on the Wembley pitch on the morning of the cup final. The stadium is empty, there are hours until kick-off, what is the point? The point is that players are getting to know their competitive space, it is all part of the process of getting to know the space intimately and owning it.
Application to Life
In the same way, you need a space to call your own and then you need to own it. Many Christians have a ‘prayer chair’ to get away from the distractions of the day. Sitting in the same place every day can help to give a signal to your soul that this is the time to be with God. Of course, that’s not to say that we’re ever apart from God, but on top of a generalised awareness of God’s presence with us at all times, it’s good to proactively seek Him out on a daily basis, and a ‘sacred place’ (even a chair) can really help us in this. May be for you, there is an outdoor space, or a particular room in the house, but if you haven’t got one, find one. Jesus recognised the need to regularly be in places where he could deliberately be with God. And if Jesus needed to do it, then so do we. In this space, get into the habit of “wasting” time with God. We often talk about “spending” time with God as we ask each other if we’ve “done” our devotions. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be a transaction-based relationship. One of the most mind-blowing truths in the Bible is that God wants us. He has no need of us, but he wants us. Once we have defined this space and established a rhythm of life to defend it against the competing demands on our time and attention, we can then own all the spaces we occupy during the day in Jesus’ name. It is so empowering to go into every situation knowing that the King of Kings is with you, and if He is for you, nobody can stand against you. This is the very opposite of the cocky arrogance that we can sometimes see in the world. Rather, this is a pure, God-centred confidence that flows out of an awareness that wherever we are in the world, we are in the right place, because who we are in Him never changes, regardless of where we are in the world. Our loveliness to God does not rise and fall with our usefulness to Him. This is very different to most of our relationships, where people’s value to us, and ours to them is based on what we or they can get out of it. Today, be inspired by the world of sport to be proactive, even aggressive, in carving out time to spend with God, and then make sure you defend it at all costs.
“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16.
Image credit: Akshar Dave via Unsplash
