“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2:4

“Stephen,” my golf instructor told me in high school. “We’re going to make a list.”

“Okay,” I said. “Of what?”

“Of all the positive things that are true about your golf game,” he told me.

I think my instructor knew the exercise would be difficult for me. He knew how much I beat myself up, how much I convinced myself I was worse than I actually was, how much of a pessimist and perfectionist I am.

By the end of the exercise, we had a good-sized list, surprisingly. “Alright,” he told me, folding the paper up in fourths and putting it in my golf bag, “Whenever you have a bad hole, you’re going to take this list out and read it.”

Essentially, what he did was train me to remind myself and convince myself of positives that are already true of me. I’m learning to do the same in my spiritual walk, to remind myself that the same Holy Spirit dwelling inside the apostles at Pentecost also lives in me, to remind myself that I am in perfect unity with God.

2 Peter 1:4 states: “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

Because of Christ, we participate in the divine nature of the Godhead. Truth is Him loving and living through us.

By Stephen Copeland

Stephen Copeland is a staff writer for Sports Spectrum magazine. Log in here to access our most recent Training Table. Subscribe here to receive 12 issues a year and a daily sports-related devotional.