June 2, 2012

6/2/2

“No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God.”

-1 John 3:9

It’s amazing how quickly the time goes by. As I sit here doing my devotion this morning I just can’t believe that it’s already June… It feels like it was just yesterday when I was beginning my freshman year of college. Anyways, I really enjoyed this verse because I came across another verse that sort of meshes with it. “If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.” -1 John 1:10. They have a very practical connection. See, John reminds us that sin will creep into our lives. But what the 9th verse in 1 John 3 points out is that we must not allow this sin to take over our lives. John says that the best way to try and prevent it from taking over is to become habitual and continual. Confession is a big part of this. Talking to God and keeping a clean slate in front of him allows us to stop the sin before it seeps its way into us and destroys us. If something is on your heart today then I want you to go to God and bring it to him. Don’t put it on the back burner or store it deep inside. God lives inside of you and knows everything about you. Going to him and talking and spending more time in his presence will help create a habitual desire to want to spend more and more time with him and will cause less desire and temptation to fall into sin…

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June 1, 2012

6/1/12

“God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

-Romans 8:28

Don’t ask why, ask what…. This really stood out to us today as we read our devotion. It’s so easy to fall into the question game of “why God?” when something happens. Instead of trusting in his faithfulness and knowing he has a perfect plan for us we tend to get down and defeated as we begin to doubt. As we were talking about what this verse meant to us we realized that this will be a constant struggle in our lives to trust God’s goodness 100% when we experience difficulties. As athletes, injury is one of those unfortunate difficulties many of us have had to struggle through. It’s so hard to stay positive and continue trusting that God has a plan through it all. Thinking back to the middle of my senior year, right after cross country season and before the start of track, I couldn’t have been more excited. I had just signed with UF, come off a great season, and was so happy to see what would be accomplished in track. However, only a couple weeks later, I suddenly experienced a constant knee pain I couldn’t run through. At first I was still trusting in God, and positively thought I would only be out a couple weeks. But then it kept on, and on, and before I knew it, track was coming to an end without even being able to run one race, or run at all for that matter. This was a time in my life I struggled to see God’s goodness, to see His plan for me in a positive light. However, looking back, even though I wouldn’t want to experience it again, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Why? Because I see how close this difficulty brought me to God and how much He strengthened me and molded my character through it. And best of all, now I can relate to others going through similar situations, and truly know how they feel, being able to have compassion and help them more than I ever could have before. God uses all things for the good. Will you stand in faith of that? My prayer is that we can learn to trust Him more and more each day, as our knowledge grows continually of just how great our God is.

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May 31, 2012

5/31/12

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment.” Romans 5:3-5

“But what if this happens?” “What if I die out and then lose?” Sometimes it’s questions like these that keep us “out of the game” altogether. Wouldn’t it seem silly to mentally, physically, and emotionally prepare yourself for a big game or race, and then end up letting your fear stand in the way of ever even stepping out on the field or line? Or even another silly yet true example: buying all the ingredients to make something and taking the time to study the recipe carefully, and then never actually attempting to make it because you think you’ll mess up or experience a bad result. Sometimes, we allow our fear to keep us in the “planning stages”, and withhold us from ever making a move. Whether it’s something someone’s said to you like “____, you’re not good enough”, or just your own thoughts of what could happen when making a big life decision, God desires us to not fear the “what ifs” or the problems we may encounter, but leave our planning stage as we go into action out of faith. Planning is in no way a bad thing, but God’s desire is that it will not be our final stage. He wants us to jump in the race with Him. And He gives us promises that should remove any second guessing. We never have to fear of “dying out”, because He will be right alongside of us pacing us– strengthening us, building our character, and giving us a hope that will never disappoint us :)

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May 30, 2012

5/30/12

“Be patient with everyone.”

-1 Thessalonians 5:14

Patience is a virtue is a common saying that we always here. This concept seems so simple, but sometimes in reality it is a tough to live out on a daily basis. In a world that is centered around constantly being on the move and instant gratification God is actually calling us to be patient and wait. The easy way out is not always the best way. Rushing a decision can sometimes cause you to miss out on a better option. See, God has great plans in store for us. He knows that we can’t make all the decisions on our own. He places certain people in our lives to help guide us through some of these decisions, but ultimately God is the only one we can go to for the “right” decision. Taking the time to focus on God while making decisions, whether they are big or small will allow you to experience personal joy. God is the one source of happiness that will never let you down. So why not come to him when you need to sit back and wait for something great to happen. If you’re trying to make decisions right now I encourage you to focus your thoughts on God. Sometimes the best decisions come to fruition from having a little patience instead of wanting something done right there on the spot. I encourage you to go to God when your patience is in short supply. He will lead you and open up the right doors for you. He will uplift and strengthen you…

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May 29, 2012

5/29/12

“May the Lord make your love increase
and overflow for each other and for
everyone else, just as ours does for you.
May he strengthen your hearts so that you
will be blameless and holy in the presence
of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus
comes with all his holy ones.” 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

As I came across this verse today, I felt like it was just a great prayer for our lives. Have you ever taken a can of coke, shaken it up really good, and then opened it? What happens next? It sprays out of the can all over the person and sometimes even on the people next to them. Well God wants us to be just like that can! He offers us such an amazing unconditional love, hoping that we will then let His love overflow to the people’s lives around us. His desire is that we have such a great love inside of us, that even when we’re tossed here and there or shaken up by this world, that what overflows out of us is solely His love. My prayer today for both all of you and myself are these two verses. That God will increase our love each and every day  and strengthen our hearts, so that when He comes again, we will be ready :)

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May 28, 2012

5/28/12

“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

-1 Timothy 4:8

There are a few instances where the apostle Paul made some references to athletics in his writing. He did not disparage the value of physical exercise, but he made it clear that godliness reigns supreme. Dr. Kenneth Cooper is an expert of physical fitness. He advocates good training, good eating, and habits so that we can get the most out of our bodies. See, Dr. Cooper knows that physical fitness is great, but it is not enough. He understands that spiritual health is of even greater importance than physical health. Like the apostle Paul, Dr. Cooper agrees that sports may be important in our lives, but they should never take preeminence over our spiritual pursuits. There isn’t anything wrong with physical exercise, taking care of our temples requires exercise. The main point is that sports have some value whereas spiritual training helps us in all things… the present life and the life to come. Today i’m asking you to think about the role that sports have in your life. Using sports in a way to glorify God and to get the right amount of value from the physical training it brings will help it to remain in it’s rightful place…

Here is a prayer for any of you today. Lord, I am your temple. Thank you for your creation. I am so thankful that I can enjoy sports through viewing, listening, talking about them or playing in them. But I know that sports have less value than growing spiritually. So I thank you that I can grow closer to you and know you more. Thank you for all your amazing works…

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May 27, 2012

5/27/12

“If God if for us, than who can be against us?” ~Romans 8:31

This verse may be very common and overly used sometimes, yet today, Tony Dungy applied it in his devotional in a way I haven’t thought of it before. It’s so easy to fall into praying for a certain outcome, or believing there is only one solution to your problem and becoming down and defeated when that solution doesn’t happen. But the key is faith.  Today, Tony Dungy went into explaining how tough the year 2001 was for him, with not having too great of a season, losing to the Philadelphia Eagles once again, and hearing the media rant and rave as to whether or not he would be fired. He said he attempted to just keep doing his job the best he could, and prayed that God would take care of the rest. However, he was soon fired. Now he could have soaked in his misery and thought that God had forgotten him and not answered his prayers, but instead, he packed up, and kept trusting that God would provide. What happened next? God provided. The Indianapolis Colts called wanting him to fulfill their mission. Now this certainly wasn’t what he had probably expected to or hoped would happen while still coaching his former team, yet God had bigger and better plans for him. Whether an outcome in your life is something you had hoped for or not, I encourage you today to believe that God has a master plan in it all; and perhaps, even if not what you had hoped for in your “perfect world”, that it truly will lead you to something so much greater than you could ever have thought of. And best of all, God’s plan will end in glorifying His power and strength and love through it all. If you aren’t sure or are questioning what God’s plan is for you today, you aren’t alone, but trust that He has a perfect solution and plan for you. Remember..If God is for us, who can be against us?

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May 26, 2012

5/26/12

 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons.
He went to the first and said,
‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing.
He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
“Which of the two did what his father wanted?” Matthew 21:28-31

Ty and I started reading a new devotional by former NFL player and coach, Tony Dungy. Every day so far has been amazing, as being an athlete himself, applies so many biblical concepts to his own experiences. Today, Ty and I did a devotion together and came upon this parable in Matthew. This was so applicable to our lives because Jesus told this to the pharisees in order to make the point that what you say with your mouth is one thing, but following through with it in action is a whole different story, and what makes the true difference. God wants us to live and shine for Him through our actions, not just our words. Anyone can say I believe in God, or I’m a Christian, but do the actions of their life show differently?  Ty and I felt like so often we will be quick to say yes to anything our coach desires of us, and follow through with it, yet when our parents desire something, or we feel God leading us a certain direction, we may say we will do it, and may even have good intentions on doing it..yet fail to follow through as we get caught up in the chaos and busyness of life. Nothing is wrong with good intentions, but we feel that so often many people, including us, fail to follow our words and desires in action. Just like in the athletic world, talk is cheap in the spiritual world as well. Anyone can say I’m the best one, I have the fastest time, we’re ranked number 1..but you must then go out and follow that talk with action, you must perform. God desires the same thing in our relationship with Him. We can say anything about our love or passion for God, but His desire is that we follow that talk with action, that we literally live for Him. You never know when someone is watching…


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May 24, 2012

5/24/12

“Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another.
Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling
block or obstacle in your brother’s way.” ~Romans 14:13

Referees making good calls and bad ones, we’ve all seen it and been involved in both situations. Yet it’s interesting to see how people react when they disagree with the call or have an unfair call made. Ultimately, there are two ways you can react: judgingly and condemning out of anger, or merciful out of grace and forgiveness. It’s probably not hard to guess which one God desires of us! I have to say I’ve been guilty in the past, as when I use to play competitive soccer, I experienced many “bad” calls. And I’d by lying if I said that every single time I acted out in grace, and instead of getting angry, forgave and showed mercy. Now some people would say, well that’d be such a weird response! And yes, it is, when compared to the majority of the people. But that is what will make us stand out and shine. It is what will show others that we truly are different. But of course, this doesn’t only apply to calls by referees, but in so many areas of our lives! Whenever you feel you have been wronged, unfairly judged/ treated, or disagree with a decision that impacts you, choose to react in a way that isn’t first nature: forgiveness and grace. When feeling anger come over you, I encourage you today to forgive instead of condemn. When tempted to stay bitter, offer grace. You will surely shine like a star for Him as you practice mirroring the same mercy and grace that our loving God offers us every single day :)

Posted by on May 24, 2012 in Uncategorized.

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May 23, 2012

5/23/12

“Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.”

-Psalm 105:4

I love this verse because it talks about looking to the Lord no matter if we are in good or bad times. It’s easy to look to him when things are going well, but there are also times where we turn away from him because things are going well and we think we don’t need to spend time with God because we have it under control. This verse talks to me because back in high school I always went to the Lord whenever something was wrong or whenever I had a big race coming up. See, he wants us to constantly seek him. Not just the times where we really need him before an event, but at all times. I want to encourage you to practice being in his presence more and more. Take a look around you, go for a walk and take in the sun, the birds, the flowers and know that God is with you at all times. He’s strengtehning you and preparing you for the events in each day. I want to encourage you to live in the present moment. You might have something out in the future that is bothering you or on your mind, but God gives us one day and he wants us to make the most of it. Don’t let those thoughts about the future creep into your head. Focus on the present and what you can do to glorify at this very moment…

“The past was. Tomorrow may be. Only today is…”

Posted by on May 23, 2012 in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , .

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