“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding …” — Proverbs 3:5
Trusting in God as Your Coach
Do you have the same level of trust in God as you do with your coach?
In the final seconds of a game when players are huddled around their coach before executing the game-winning play, or when players’ bodies are fine-tuned and strengthened by conditioning coaches, and even when a team tunes out the critics to listen to their coach’s perspective for wisdom and motivation, there is often a deep level of trust between an athlete and their coach.
While athletes often form an unbreakable bond with their coach, we must take a moment to stop and reflect on our hearts to see if we have an even higher level of trust with God, our loving Father. God tells us through Scripture that “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and that “His love endures forever” (Psalm 136:26). But how often do we not let those truths sink in and find ourselves placing more trust in humans, rather than our all-powerful, all-mighty and all-loving God, who cares infinitely more about us than anyone ever could?
Just as a coach writes up the game-winning play on their whiteboard, God is drawing up His perfect plan for our lives. It’s for us to attempt to execute to the best of our ability by being step-in-step with the Holy Spirit’s leading and direction — similar to how an athlete must do their best to run the correct routes and formations the coach has drawn up in order for the play to work.
Additionally, just as an athlete can tune out crowd noise in an instant once their coach starts talking in the huddle, we must work to tune out the noise and critics of the world to focus on our Father’s voice. We must listen intently to His wisdom and direction, and what He says about His love for us.
Further, just as an athlete entrusts their bodies with practice schedules and strengthening plans carefully crafted by their coach, we must offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1). We must ensure that every breath, thought and action comes from a pure heart that is pleasing to God as we walk step-by-step in His light.
So, as you listen to the voices of your coaches, take time to reflect and ask yourself if you are giving the same, if not more, amount of focus and dedication to God, our ultimate coach.
For God is our one true coach who knows exactly what we need, loves us infinitely and desires to be in relationship with us and have us place our trust in Him.
— Ryan Vilfer
If you would like to submit a reader devotional, please email all submissions to
devotionals@sportsspectrum.com.
