Some assistant football coaches are always assigned to a place in the press box or in one corner of the stadium to get a higher view of the field of play. The view from higher up allows the entire field to be seen from a better angle. They can see all 22 players on the field and can see potential possibilities for play calling on both sides of the ball. The coaches in the press box are then in contact with the coaches on the sidelines to help with suggestions and other ideas.

When we pray, we call to God for help, who is in a higher location and can see our lives from a better view point.

In a football game we know we are in a battle, a physical game that is about defeating our opponent on the field of play. In our lives most of us have no idea we are in a battle. It is a spiritual battle against satan and his fallen angels.

Coach Larry Toner said in a talk on prayer, “Bring someone to church with you who likes to fight” because that is what we are in, is a fight against satan.

This is the mentality we need to bring to prayer. We are fighting for our children, our spouses, our extended families, our churches, our friends and our own souls.

Do you see your prayer life as a fight against evil? Let me encourage you to call on the Most High God to look your life over and help you call some new plays.

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Cuonzo Martin 🔊🔊 — Must watch for all coaches pic.twitter.com/uRpdJ7EDwP

— CoachTube.com (@thecoachtube) February 11, 2020

Our football coach told us to put a piece of athletic tape on the front of our helmets on the first day of practice. We then wrote our last name on that piece of athletic tape in large letters. Coach said, “Very soon I will remember your names, but here at the start of the football season, there are too many of you that I don’t know.”

We as players knew the coaches name, but he didn’t know us. One day, early in the season, we were scrimmaging and one of my teammates made an outstanding tackle and coach yelled out, “Who is that guy?” It became very apparent to us football players, that we needed to do exactly what the coach wanted us to do; in the way he wanted us to do it, so he would know us.

The most important question in your life is not, “Do you know Jesus or are you saved?” The most important question of your life is, “Does Jesus know you?”

Matthew 7: 21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ 23 Then I will declare to them solemnly, I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.”

Football players go to practice every day and get known by the coach and you will become aware of what the coach wants.

Christians are supposed to go to practice every day and get known by Jesus through Bible reading, prayer, worship. God’s desire for you will become apparent after you spend time with him, but first you must repent of your sin and believe in Jesus.

There are many videos of Paul Washer. You don’t want to hear what he has to say, but you need to hear what he has to say.

We run all day long. We get up late and race to work or school. We move quickly between classes or meetings and hardly have time to sit and think about anything. Noon hour comes and we eat quickly, if we get to eat at all and then we begin the afternoon in another sprint to the finish line of school or work. After work or school we have practice of sports and other children we have to take care of and something to eat for supper and then we may go to another job or other meetings in the evening.

And when we pray, if we do that anymore, we race through our prayers at warp speed, spitting out our wants and needs as fast as we live our lives.

My life is no different than your life. I have raced through life at 70 to 80 hours of work a week for years. Married, with three children and we were involved in sports, work, school, church and multiple jobs at one time. But one thing I have continued to do is to find time to pray.

Recently, I read a book named ‘Silence The Mystery of Wholeness’ by Robert Sardello. The author has some great thoughts about silence, but one thing, in the book, that has changed my thoughts on prayer is to slow down. He encourages you to say your prayers one word at a time with silence between your words. This includes your memorized prayers such as the Our Father, Glory Be or Oh my Jesus.

Here is what the author says about one word at a time praying, “The words echo in an inner way as we silently speak the outer words. In this echoing we can feel, if we pay attention, an incredible, seemingly unending depth in what we are saying. It is as if we have entered a place where the word has become a spirit. The flatness of speaking transforms into dimensional space. This depth can extend to the point that the words seem to be no longer coming from “me” as I know myself to be, but from a being within me that speaks. When we pray, it is as if a second person is within us praying at a depth we can hardly imagine. Through our presence within the Silence, our spirit-being is able to speak. When we pray in the more usual way, we are often not present with our spirit. The presence of Silence is necessary for our inner spirit voice to resound. With this kind of praying, prayer and meditation join as one.”

There are many ways to pray; words, no words, standing, sitting, kneeling, walking, with or with out other people whenever you feel the need.

Romans 8:26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Scripture from The Message.

My airplane pilot friend and I decided we were going to fly into Atwood Friday night for the football game. So we called a couple of our friends to fly with us. Friday night we left town at about 6:00 p.m. for the quick trip to Atwood and arrived there in plenty of time to catch a ride into town and watch the game.

After the game was over, we drove the courtesy car back to the airport and checked out our plane and took off headed north due to the wind was out of the north. There was no moon above as we left the ground. I was pilot in charge, sitting in the left seat as we took off and it was really, really dark out in front of us. There is almost nothing north of Atwood, since the airport is north of town. It was instrument flight conditions as we left the ground. But being just a visual flight rules pilot, I was not focused on my instruments, but was looking exclusively out the windshield.

I was pulling back on the yoke too much and at one point I could not pull it back anymore and was kind of fighting the yoke thinking what is going on? I looked over at my friend and he had his hand on the yoke and said to me, “Look at your instruments?” I did and saw immediately that the nose of the plane was too high.

So I pushed the yoke forward and put the nose of the plane where it needed to be and then did a 180 degree turn to head back home. As we headed south we flew right over Atwood and could see the long line of cars headed south on the highway. We now could fly VFR all the way home.

My pilot friend told me, as we flew home; that he had flown out of Atwood before at night and said it was good instrument training on a dark night. No telling what would have happened if my friend had not been with me that night.

Proverbs 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

All great performances with instrument, voice or games of football are preceded by lots of practice sessions.