The Lord's Prayer (For Sportspeople)Sample

"Our Father in heaven…Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors."

Sport can easily make us angry and vengeful. It’s impossible to be involved in sport for a long time without finding yourself in conflict with a coach, player, or opponent. For those playing at the higher levels, conflict will emerge with supporters and the media. Today we explore how a relationship with Jesus Christ can take away the problems that can result from such challenges.

Three basic provisions

In the second half of the Lord’s prayer, Jesus deals with our physical, emotional, and moral needs.

Stop taking the poison.

Today, we consider our emotional needs. When we become vengeful towards those who have hurt us, it creates emotional havoc. Every time we think about that person the pain is deep. So many of us have been poisoned by the inability to forgive people who have hurt us.

Yet, it is possible to eradicate poisonous vengeance from our lives if we focus on what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The Good News is that God has forgiven us, even though we had completely rejected and opposed him. Despite our animosity to God, he has forgiven our debts completely. Further, he has welcomed us into the heart of his family as our loving, heavenly Father.

Forgiving our debtors: the importance of gratitude

Jesus teaches us to pray about the issue of forgiveness so that we can regularly remind ourselves of God’s forgiveness towards us. The more we appreciate this undeserved act of kindness, the more grateful we will be. And it is in experiencing such gratitude to God, that our lives will change such that we can forgive those who have hurt us.

There is no prospect of being able to forgive others without the divine gift of grace leading to gratitude. To understand this, look at what the apostle Paul writes:

But understand, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful … (2 Timothy 3:1–2).

In a world full of conflict and dispute leading to the destruction of personal relationships, it is striking that Paul adds an innocuous thing like ingratitude to a list of horrible, relationship-destroying characteristics like greed, pride, arrogance, abuse, and insubordination.

Paul does so because gratitude makes us free from the need to seek revenge. The person who receives grace becomes grateful. The grateful person is humble, not proud; humble exalting and not self-exalting; glad-hearted and not angry or bitter.

The key to unlocking gratitude and overcoming the horror of destructive relationships is to know our Father in Heaven and to appreciate how he paid the debt we owed him. We pray to him and remind ourselves of how our Father has forgiven us. When we fail to remind ourselves of his great kindness, our hearts can become hard towards others when they offend us.

Let go of bitterness.

Before you head to the game today, reflect on the truth that because God has forgiven us, we can, by his grace and our gratitude, forgive our debtors. Today is a brilliant opportunity to ask our Father in heaven to release us from the poisonous and emotionally debilitating pain of hatred and revenge.

Think now of the colleague or opponent that you feel vengeful about. Ask Jesus to help you put that person in the divine context. Remember that because God forgave you, you can forgive them.

Then, watch your joy return as the poison of hatred and anger leaves your mind and heart.

God is committed to your emotional welfare; he wants you to play today unburdened by the pain of hatred. Go play.

Prayer

Our Father in heaven, help us to see how you have forgiven our debt. Please help us to see it so clearly that we overflow with humble gratitude that transforms the way we deal with those in debt to us. Give us peace in our hearts that transforms the way we approach those we dislike and so shine brightly for you at today’s game.

Amen