“So, you by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice,
and wait continually for your God.
– Hosea 12:6 (ESV)
“Why are we playing so lousy?” That’s the question I muttered to myself as I stood on the sidelines watching my team’s performance. Dropped passes, silly penalties, and lack of focus were allowing an inferior opponent to stay in the game. As I squirmed and shook my head, I was getting more and more frustrated with each play. It suddenly occurred to me that I had become spoiled by the past success of the team. We had been winning and in most cases winning convincingly. As a coach, I had fallen into the trap of expecting my team to always play well. They had done it in the past, so surely great things would just naturally happen in the future. I remembered some wisdom I heard long ago—past success does not guarantee future success. How easy it is for us to just expect good things to happen! How easy it is to take our good fortune and blessings for granted.
As I reflect on that experience, I must admit that I often do the same thing in my relationship with God. All too often I fall into a false sense of security when all is going well. To be truthful, I sometimes even forget about God and think that’s the way things are supposed to be. Then when my life turns into a disaster, I want to know what the heck is going on! “God, are You still there?” Taking God for granted is dangerous. When we forget to grow our relationship with God, He will find a way to get our attention. Relationships take hard work to grow. Is it possible that you’re taking God for granted? Take some time to study His Word. Spend time talking to Him and listening for His response. God has never been closer.
Heavenly Father, help me to grow in my relationship with You today. May I never take You for granted or take credit for the blessings You give me. Amen.
Very true! I coach a very talented group of young ladies in basketball. We just recently transitioned from rec to travel ball and told them to expect tougher opponents and never expect the road to be easy. Well, I gave them that long speech mainly for them but to myself also. It had been 3 years since we lost a game and during our first time on the court against a better team i caught myself getting upset with the score instead of their determination and heart. We battled back to only lose by 4! It was a game I looked back and realize that we learned so much. Out of all the games I have coached, we all learned more from it. Sports can be what we make it. But as a coach we need to connect it with our faith to our kids. It’s something they are passionate about and if we can relate it to the Lord maybe it will click with them easier and more soon in life.