In the Communion of Prayer

As an athlete, how often do you communicate with your coach? As a young athlete, you might see your coach once or twice a week. As a more committed teenage athlete, you start to see your coach almost every day. The higher you climb in your athletic standing, the more frequent your communication with your coach becomes. Highly invested coaches are constantly checking in on the mental, emotional and physical health of their athletes.

You have a Father in Heaven that is committed to your flourishing as His child. As a coach is committed to an athlete, God is committed to your cause. Whether you are the best or the bench warmer, He is not swayed in His affection for you based on your athletic standing. He wants you to be in constant dialogue with Him. The more you grow with Him, the more you are in communication with Him!

Prayer is a conversation between you and the Lord. Could you imagine a coach that only spoke to his or her athletes, but never allowed them to respond? Or an athlete that only spoke to his or her coach, but the coach never corresponded? The best coach/athlete relationships are the ones that are dynamic and active in communication.

Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

In prayer, we tell God what we need, we thank Him and then we wait. We listen. In this, we EXPERIENCE His peace that will set a guard around our hearts and minds. His voice and the power of His presence make us secure in and out of the arena of competition.