30 Daily Football Devotionals

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We meet Jesus’ disciples—eleven of them, anyway—waiting on the top of a mountain in Galilee. They are gathered there to see what this man who was dead and is now alive has to say. What the plan is now. No doubt their heads are spinning. It’s been a crazy week. Legendary basketball coach John Wooden coined the phrase “Competitive Greatness.” But as a competitive athlete, I sometimes get it mixed up with “Being Great.” Competitive greatness is not being the best, but being the best you can be. There can only be one best, but everyone can achieve being the best they can be. Undivided, straightforward, sacrificial focus for good. That is what I mean by warrior instinct. It’s a summary of the character Paul refers to beginning in 2 Timothy 2:3 — the character of a “good soldier of Christ Jesus.” Elaborating on the soldier metaphor, Paul tells Timothy, “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” Get this: Paul, the experienced missionary, encourages Timothy, the young pastor, with the example of a warrior. What exactly is that example? It’s focus. Warriors don’t get distracted. They don’t get caught up with the wrong things. They are clear about their aim. Life and death are on the line.

The college football season is fully underway and that means it’s time for week ten of the Big 12, PAC-12 Power Poll.

do ask for God’s help. With pre-game prayers and the “Tebowing” some players do, we might assume that both sides are angling for divine favor. With God on your side, how can you lose? As a Psalm says, “With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies” (Psalms 108:13). But you might be correct in wondering whether God really stands on one side or the other. Does he really care whether the Saints or the Lions come out ahead? (Maybe that’s a bad example.) American football is the most popular sport in the United States, with over 1 million high school athletes and over 67,000 college students participating in the sport at any one time, with a small percentage going professional. Whatever your thoughts about football, there’s no denying that with the sport’s qualities of teamwork, work ethic, and leadership, among others, football can teach its participants important life lessons that resonate both on and off the field. Then for fans, on Friday, June 30, BYU will have a “BIG Countdown” at the Student Athlete Building at 11:30 p.m. to ring in BYU’s new life as a member of the Big 12. This Saturday, from 3-6 p.m., BYU is holding “the BIG Party” to celebrate BYU officially being in the Big 12 Conference. path id="pathAttribute" d="M 8.917969 7.773438 L 367.417969 7.773438 L 367.417969 366.273438 L 8.917969

As a young assistant football coach this scene made a powerful impression on me, not just as a coach, but as a man following Christ. Like Paul, I cannot think about my Christian walk without noting the obvious parallels to lessons learned from athletic competition. Here, I hope to point to some lessons from sports that I have been able to leverage for spiritual growth. My hope is that these examples will help you to think more intentionally and profitably as a Christian about your interaction with sports and doing so will be a catalyst toward sanctification. The FA’s Faith and Football programme will see special events take place with other faith communities in the coming months. As part of the initiative, it held an online webinar with the Religion Media Centre to discuss the links between football and Christianity. Looking for opportunities to apply these fundamentals in your life can not only make a difference for you, but it will make a difference in the lives of others.When you go on the field you concentrate on the game but there’s so much more going on besides,” he added. A chaplain’s role was best summed as “pastorally proactive and spiritually reactive”. In Jesus name, Amen. Ministry Insights Exercises offer best practices to put profile data into practice in the workplace, home, ministry, and relationships. How was this team devotional a meaningful interaction for you? Share your story with us here. The following attachments are devotionals created by Sportsfaith writer Shawn Leibegott to help coaches teach athletes not only about Christ but about important characteristics all athletes should develop.

Strong affiliations in football have sometimes been linked to religious rivalries, but Ms Pepinster hopes such sectarianism is disappearing. He said the book stemmed from his own efforts to set up a church team in Merseyside.“A lot of the boys were being ridiculed for playing for a church club and many left because they couldn’t cope with those comments,” he added.“So, I wrote Thank God for Football to tell the boys in the club, ‘look, you’re not freaks, you’re part of a rich tradition’. Why? Because while “warrior culture” is dangerous, warrior instinct is endangered, and football stands as one of the last bastions of its enduring good. What Is Warrior Instinct?Matt Baker has been chaplain at Charlton Athletic since 2000 and is national director for England at Sports Chaplaincy UK. While footballing has a reputation as a glamorous career path, players often struggle to cope with the transition to life in the spotlight, he said. King Saul echoed the thoughts of every general manager, coach, and fantasy football enthusiast when he said, “Find someone who plays well and bring him to me” (1 Samuel 16:17). He was actually looking for a musician, but he found young David, who turned out to be a pretty good athlete as well. I am a sprinter, both literally and spiritually. When I played sports, I did not have a great amount of ability, but I could run… fast. I ran fast... Paul himself sees a connection as he continues his exhortation to Timothy. After the example of the soldier, Paul moves on to the example of an athlete with the same kind of commendation (2 Timothy 2:5). If the soldier fights with focus, the athlete only wins if he plays by the rules. Both of these examples, along with the painstaking work of a farmer, represent the character that Paul says Timothy should emulate. Use this team devotional as a short Bible study or exercise during one of your regular team meetings. For You From the Word

In “Any Given Sunday”, Al Pacino plays an aging NFL coach. Toward the end of the movie, he gives a monologue about how football, like life, is a game of inches: Legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant was reported to tell his teams, “It is not the will to win the matters—everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that matters.” I have heard another coach say that growth comes from making yourself do what you need to do when you do not want to do it, and to do so consistently enough that you want to do it. Walking in line with the gospel does not come to us naturally or intuitively. Rather, we are involved in the daily process of becoming who we are in Christ. Jesus is Lord! Our natural desires are not Lord. In Ephesians, Paul exhorts the believer, “put off the old self” and “put on the new self” (Eph. 4:22, 24). This process of learning to live in accordance to our new identity in Christ is a daily and progressive struggle. I heard a sports psychologist say, “We don’t rise to the occasion, we sink to the level of our daily habits.” That is good counsel for athletes and Christians who want to grow. We need this warrior instinct more than ever because it’s increasingly rare in our society. We don’t have to look far to see that the ambition for an undivided, straightforward, sacrificial focus has been compromised by a distracted, weaselly, self-obsessed directionless. The studies are out and the articles have been written. The word “encourage” used here implies coming alongside another to urge them on. Think of a situation in which a team member encouraged you. How did you feel?After all, it’s only a game. The apostle makes this distinction clear: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25). In our efforts to please the Lord, we need to dodge obstacles and move steadily to the goal. It takes perseverance and self-discipline. We can learn a lot about that from well-trained athletes, but the truth is that PROVO, Utah – BYU athletics has been waiting for this moment for decades. That moment is moving into the Big 12 Conference. Be Prepared! It’s not about winning, it’s about being prepared. Being prepared is being ready when God opens doors. Having a passion to prepare will help you face the battle as an athlete so that challenges are embraced…never feared. Thank you for the strengths represented on this team. Today, I especially thank You for [allow team members to give thanks for specific strengths represented on the team.]