I’ve dislocated my knee twice while playing basketball. What’s just as frustrating as the dislocation itself, however, is what happens to the quad muscle after the injury. It shuts down. In order to get back out on the basketball court, even after two surgeries fixed my knee cap, I had to hook an electric stimulator up to my quad multiple times a day, for several weeks straight, just to fire up the muscle again. It was as if my quad completely forgot how to function, even after the surgery. It was as if my quad muscle, which functioned perfectly ever since I learned to walk, suddenly forgot the way it worked before.

Sometimes, I think our hearts work the same way. Consider David. In 1 Samuel, we read about how “the Lord was with him” and protected him as Saul did everything he could to kill him. And yet, later in David’s life, he lusts upon Bathsheba, tries to cover it up, and suffers a monstrous fall. It’s as if he forgot how much God loved and protected him in his past. He forgot how to walk. He was spiritually unconscious.

As our series on 1 Samuel continues this issue and we read about Saul’s pursuit of David and God’s protection of David, think about the blessings God has bestowed upon you in your past. Are you living conscious of His love? Or have you forgotten the very thing at the core of your being—the fact you are loved?

By Stephen Copeland

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