“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” — Proverbs 3:5-6

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Athletes intuitively know that if you need to get stronger, you spend time in the weight room. If you need to increase your free-throw percentage, you spend hours practicing your shot. If you want to have an advantage over your opponent, you spend more time watching film. Athletes know that their success is directly proportional to their work ethic and personal discipline.

But what happens when you do all you can and still don’t get the outcome you hoped for? It’s disorienting when an athlete realizes that the outcome they want isn’t totally dependent upon them. This is the key principle a Christ-centered athlete must recognize as they survey their athletic career: It is not all up to their effort.

No matter how hard an athlete works, how much they want it, how much they dial in their nutrition, there is a God factor that must be surrendered to. Our God is a good Father, and every father wants to bless his children with good and lavish gifts. But God is more interested in our allegiance to Him than our aspirations of athletic success.

In Deuteronomy 5:9 (NLT), God is warning His people to not get their worship mixed up. Too many times, we put temporary things above eternal things. We put earthly things on the throne of our hearts and worship them, rather than allow God to remain in His rightful seat. This is what the Bible calls “idolatry.” An idol can be anything we worship above God Almighty. We often think of idols being little statues or golden calves, but idolatry isn’t limited to physical objects. An idol can be a good thing that we make an ultimate thing. It could be a relationship, finances, status, our stats, how our body looks or how we perform in competition. And for athletes this is the greatest temptation — to worship their sport more than they worship Jesus.

Sometimes God will allow us to walk through the difficulty of unmet expectations and desires so that He can get ahold of our heart’s affection. So as an athlete, you must continue to work hard, eat right, prepare your body, work on your skills and watch film. Keep doing all the things necessary to achieve the dreams you have set before you.

But you must also remember that everything is not in your hands. Sometimes we must “work like it’s all up to us while at the same time pray like it’s all up to God” (Mark Batterson, “The Circle Maker”). As we simultaneously do these two things, we live out Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Worshiping Him will not guarantee athletic success, but it will align your heart and life with eternal things.

God will not allow you to worship your sport or desired success more than you worship Him. If you’re finding your worth in your sport or in what others think, take a moment and ask God to forgive you and tell Him you want Him to be on the throne of your life.

— Reza Zadeh

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