Hearts After God
What is your relationship with God like? Are you just acquaintances? Do you spend a couple minutes together a week? Or is your relationship with the Lord living and active?
We recently heard an interview with professional football player Kirk Cousins, quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. Cousins, who grew up in a home where faith in God was right there with salt and pepper on the table, tells of a trying time in his life. He played on the high school football team, and it wasn’t until his junior year that he actually got a chance to play on the field. Sadly though, that didn’t last long because he suffered an injury which put him back on the bench. This hit Cousins especially hard because junior year is when the scouts come and recruit for colleges. Cousins thought it was over, his chances of playing college ball done. But his Dad was quick to put his despairing son back on track. “Remember Proverbs 3:5-6,”
he said. “‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.’”Cousin’s dad wasn’t trying to promise his son that football was still his future, but rather he was imploring him to trust in God, that no matter how this turned out, He still had a plan for him. As it turned out, Cousins did make it back on the field, and now he plays for the pros. What a miraculous turn around. “For nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37)
For Cousins, this experience was a turning point and for him is a continual testimony of God’s faithfulness. God is real, and He desires us to trust Him and walk in relationship with Him. As we listened to Cousins’ testimony, we were moved to take our relationship with God more seriously, to walk with Him more intimately each and every day. The interview also mentioned a weekly practice of Cousins’ team and other professional teams, of having Bible study and chapel. This devotion time goes right alongside their other routines like working out in the weight room and running drills on the field. And so here are these titans on the field who also find it important bow their knees before the Lord. Again, as we heard this we were inspired to hunger after God a more deeply.
We are about to enter the season of Lent, a season which kicks off with a retelling of a prominent moment in Jesus’ life when He hungered and thirsted in the wilderness. While He was tempted by Satan to give in, His hunger for God was greater, as He declared to the tempter, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)
This season, may you hunger and thirst for God in your life. He is who we truly need. Put Jesus first. Prioritize your relationship with Him, your devotions, your study of the Bible, and your honest conversation with Him. We pray that as you do this, you too will find the life and hope that Jesus, our living Savior, offers to each of us. Amen.
Schoeneck Moravian Church 