God and Football

Every year around this time in high school, college, and professional stadium locker rooms all across America, football teams gather and pray that God will help them to win the game.  Needless to say, at the end of each game, one team is sorely disappointed.

Does that mean that God favored the winning team and granted them victory because they prayed harder and more earnestly? Of course, the answer is “No.” God does not choose sides. 

God expresses equally as all creation, thus God is present in equal measure through each player on both teams. The ways in which each team collectively expresses God through athletic ability, strategic planning and teamwork determine the outcome of the game.

The same is true in each of our lives. God is fully present in and as each of us. Our life experiences manifest in alignment with our decisions to, or not to, recognize, realize and utilize the power of God in our lives.

If you find yourself praying to God for some special dispensation, STOP! 

You only need to realize that God is your ever-present reality moving and working through every aspect of your life. You are always at choice about how you will use the power of God within you.

Prayer changes us at the level of our consciousness; it does not change God. When our consciousness is transformed through prayer, so is our life. This does not necessarily mean that every condition in our lives, which we judge as “negative,” will change. It does mean that the way we perceive and respond to our life conditions will change.

If we enter into prayer for the purpose of changing a condition or determining outcome, we pray amiss. The purpose of true prayer is to remove our attention from the conditions of the world and center ourselves in the awareness of God abiding in the heart, to allow God to inform our perspective and inspire our actions.

This Sunday I will continue with my three-part series of lessons on prayer. Please join us at 10:00 as we explore how and why we pray for others.