READ: MATTHEW 6:9-10; ROMANS 8:26-39; EPHESIANS 6:18-20

Have you ever prayed for a win? Maybe you asked God for a home run or a goal or for a certain player to make a three-point shot. If you play a sport, you’ve probably prayed for yourself to make that shot. Many of us ask God to intervene in sports, and then we’re often disappointed if He doesn’t seem to answer.

The truth is, Jesus cares about us and wants us to talk to Him about everything, including games we hope to win, and the disappointment we feel when we lose. But that doesn’t mean He’ll always answer our prayers the way we want Him to.

Sometimes our prayers can be selfish, can’t they? Sometimes when we pray, we put the focus on ourselves and what we want, instead of God’s plan to do what’s best and help more people come to Jesus.

When we focus only on what we want, our prayers can become small and self-centered. But when we think about what God wants, our prayers become bigger. We can pray for more people to know His love and be transformed by the gospel. We can pray for God’s justice, mercy, and goodness to flood the whole earth. We can pray for our spiritual growth, and for the spiritual growth of other Christians we know and love. These are things we know God wants to do.

Of course, we can still ask for a win. But as we pray, we can submit to God and trust Him to help us do whatever He wants us to—even if that includes being a good sport when we lose. We can pray for God’s will to be done and that we’ll remember to show His kindness and love to the people around us, no matter how the game turns out. • A. W. Smith

• Have you ever prayed for God’s will to be done while playing or watching sports? What was that like?

• God cares about more than just who scores and who wins. He wants us to invite Him into everything that matters to us, including sports, humbly offering ourselves for His glory and His purpose. What might it look like to share His goodness through our words and actions while we play or watch sports?

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 1 John 5:14 (NIV)