Mary bought her boyfriend, Bob, a video game to show her love for him. Bob really liked the game. He started breaking dates with Mary to play the game. Soon he spent more time playing the game than with her. He started to love the video game more than Mary. Eventually they drifted apart and broke up. What was a gift as an expression of love eventually destroyed the relationship.

Just as Mary gave Bob a gift, God has given you a gift of athletic ability.
God wants a relationship with us. He gives athletic ability out of His love. God wants us not to ignore Him with the athletic ability He has given us, but to honor Him with it. In a survey of over 120 high school students in Christian youth groups, it asked what hurt their relationship with God the most. By far the most common answer was sports.

If God gives us athletic ability as a gift, why does using it hurt our relationship with Him? If God has given you athletic ability there is a good chance He wants you to use it. But it is God’s will that you grow closer to Him. You should be able to do both at the same time. It is obvious in our culture that sports are too important. But also most people do not know how to play sports for God. Here are some pointers on playing sports the right way. Here are 11 practical ways to honor God in sports:

1- Show respect to your coaches and obey all rules. In Romans 13, the Bible tells us to obey our leaders and rules. Be on time to practice, don’t talk bad about your coaches, and do what they ask. God places authority over our lives to help shape us and mold us. Pray for your coaches each day. It is a hard, stressful job. Realize they make mistakes and have bad days.


2- Be a good influence on your teammates. Sport is more about relationships and influence than winning. The relationships you build will last a lot longer than the wins and losses. God has chosen you to be a positive influence in this world even before you were born (Eph. 2:10). God has placed people on your team that you have a divine appointment with to have an influence. You will have 2-3 special teammates whose lives you could impact. When I was in college even though I sat on the bench on the football team I was able to build relationships with a few guys and we ended up having a weekly Bible Study with about 20 guys on the team. I always felt if you haven’t made an impact on some people on the team, you have really wasted your season. You should try to lead as many people on your team to Christ as possible. You are on the team for a purpose and so are your teammates. And it is a lot more than winning and losing.

3- Make your motivation to please God and give 100% because Jesus did that in everything. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, do it with all your heart, as for the Lord rather than men.” Notice the verse says to do it with all your heart. God wants you to do everything 100%: sprints, warm ups, drills, games, school work, chores. Notice the 2nd part of the verse says, “for the Lord.” Not for the coach, parents, friends, or personal recognition. The most common motive in sports is for personal recognition. People want self-glory. This creates a selfish, competitive spirit on the team, plus leads to an unsatisfied life. James 3:13 says that selfish ambition leads to disorder and every evil thing. The desire for personal recognition is a selfish ambition.

When we run sprints and have pain, focus on what Jesus did on the cross and the pain He had, yet didn’t quit. This will help you overcome pain in sports.



4- Change the environment and culture of your team. Your team is a sub culture that you live in. It will change you or you will change it. You will spend so much time in your sport that it will impact your life for good or bad. I played football in college for a Christian coach who ran his football program on Christian principles. He created the most positive, life-changing environment I’ve ever been in. Even though I sat on the bench it had a tremendous influence on my life. I’ve seen many kids enter a sports season and come out a worse person, developing habits of swearing, drinking, and drugs. I’ve seen some Christians enter a sports environment and die spiritually and never recover.

Matthew 5:13 says, “You are the salt of the world.” Back then salt was used to preserve food. It kept it from going corrupt. The more people on the team who live out a relationship with God, the more it will make the team less corrupt and make a more positive environment. God has called you to make your team’s culture and environment a better place. At the end of the season players should be better people because you were on the team.


5- Be an example of Christ on the team. Sports are a great opportunity to be an example for Christ. Be humble when you win, be a good sport, don’t lose your temper, be unselfish with your teammates, have the attitude of a servant, be honest, be on time, work hard, encourage others not to drink, do drugs, or swear, give 100%, don’t gossip. The opportunity to demonstrate the character of Christ is more important than winning and losing.

6-Winning is not determined by the scoreboard but by doing your best. Winning is reaching your full potential. Christians aren’t supposed to live by the world’s values and standards. The world value system defines winning as beating our opponent. God defines winning as doing things with all your heart. If you do your best, and represent Christ in your actions and lose on the scoreboard, you are a winner. If you win on the scoreboard, but don’t play to your best ability and don’t represent Christ, then you aren’t a winner in God’s eyes.

7- Use your position of popularity to influence others for Christ. Athletics is a platform that God has given you. People look up to athletes. This should be used for good to be a role model and set an example. Kurt Warner, David Robinson, Dwight Howard, Chad Penington, and Shawn Alexander a few of the many pro athletes who choose to be role models and use their athletic success to lead others to Christ. Being a high school athlete is one of the best opportunities in your life to influence others as the under classmen look up to the upper class- men.


8- Keep winning and losing in perspective. Winning and losing are only temporary. Ron Brown, an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska, after winning two national championships in football said, “Winning is like chewing gum. It tastes great but loses its flavor really fast.” Winning is a great feeling but the high won’t last. Losing is painful but the pain won’t last. In view of eternity it is very temporary. What we do for God is eternal.

9- Be careful not to build your identity or self worth in sports. My identity in high school was that I was a football player. When I got to college, I was on the football team but not very good. My identity and self esteem was destroyed. I became very depressed. Building your identity in sports is a sinking ship. It is just a matter of time before it is over. Since then I have found my identity in being a child of God, an ambassador of Christ, a light for Christ. This is something that will never leave me and is much more satisfying and gives me more security and confidence. You should be proud of your athletic identity, but you should be more proud that you are a child of the King, and a representative of Him.


10- We all have a need to belong. Having team unity is important. But belonging and having unity with God’s family is more important. God wants us to have unity with teammates, but our primary need to belong needs to be in a Christian peer group. My first three years of high school my main need to belong was met in the jock crowd. It was ok. But I never recall ever having a meaningful conversation. By my senior year my need to belong was met in a Christian peer group through Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Our relationships were so much more meaningful and caring. In the jock group when we weren’t playing sports we were just killing time. With the Christian group we were making a difference in our lives and the school.

11- God wants to be first in your life. Matthew 6:33 says to put God first your life. Mark 12:30 says, to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. God wants us to love Him more than sports, and to put Him first before sports. This is hard to do with the busyness of sports. If you don’t make Christ a priority you will not have the strength to make a difference on your team and your teammates will change you. Some ways we can do this is by making a few Christian events a priority. Here are a few events:


1-Each day spend time with God in prayer and Bible reading. If you were to divide a day into 10-minute segments, there would be 144 of them in one day. If we give God two of those 10-minute segment each day for Bible reading and prayer, then the other 142 will go better. The reason we exist is for a relationship with God. We should make it the highest priority every day. God blesses us when we put Him first. Without a daily quiet time you wouldn’t have the strength and to impact your team and will just go with the flow and not make a difference.

2-Make it the highest priority to be involved in a weekly Christian meeting. The most exciting thing in a teenager’s life should be their youth group. There are 168 hours in a week; we should at least give one of them for a Christian meeting. Most athletes give 20 to 30 hours a week to sports. We should be able to give an hour to God. If you are too busy for God, then you have things in your life that aren’t necessary. Attending a weekly Christian group helps keeps you strong and stay focused. I’ve seen many people take off 3 months from youth group for sports and literally die spiritually and never come back. It changed the whole direction of their life.

3- Take at least 2 to 3 weekends a year for a retreat. There are 52 weekends in a year. Many athletes give 30 to 40 weekends to sports. Following Christ is like driving a car. People need spiritual gasoline during the year. Retreats are a great way to get filled up.

4-Go to a camp in the summer. There are 12 weeks or 80 days in the summer. You should give one week to go to a Christian camp or on mission trip. You need to get strong spiritually in the summer to get ready for the pressures of the school year. Most athletes give at least a week in the summer to a sports camp. You should also budget time and money for a Christian camp.

You will change your sports team or your team will change you! Any time a Christian enters a sports season there is a chance they might come out alive spiritually. Especially if they are around a lot of older athletes who are not good role models. But by following these 11 principals you can stay strong and impact your team in a positive way. God gave you athletic ability to honor Him not to ignore Him.

God wants to be first in our lives. He will bless us when we make Him a priority. There will always be conflicts but we must make God a priority. One of the themes in the Bible is that when we make sacrifices it leads to blessing. When we have conflicts with sports and choose God first, He will bless us for it. You shouldn’t miss a game; but if you have an open gym, team dinner, or optional summer sports activity, you should pray about it rather than automatically choosing the sport activity.