Bless Others, Pray for Others

In this time leading up to Sectional, it is easy to forget our ideas this season of blessing others and praying for our enemies as we instead focus our prayers on our own goals, hopes and fears. While it is very important to take the issues we are dealing with before the Lord, we should not let ourselves become the entire focus of our spiritual thoughts.

Because I care so much about tennis, so much about the season, so much about each of our players, that it is very easy for me to let that consume all of my thoughts and prayers. It crowds out my wife, it crowds out my son, it crowds out my school work, it crowds out my study of Scripture, it crowds out my work at my church, it crowds out my work in the community. In short, tennis can become an idol for me if I'm not careful. It can become something for me that I judge my whole faith based on how tennis is going. It's really intensely selfish.

So this simple reminder is to keep our eyes out for others this week. Perhaps praying for the other teams in Sectional, perhaps helping out around the school, perhaps cheering up the JV players who are suddenly done with their season. I hope that we can keep ourselves open to how God is working all around us, and not be consumed with tennis every waking hour.

So prayers for each other and for the Sectional are appreciated and needed, our hard work and focus at practice is needed, but let's ask a little more of ourselves. Let's bless someone other than a teammate this week. Let's pray for others too.