"Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important than that."
Fear the Lord!
Since then we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. 2 Corinthians 5:11For a sportsperson, fear is normally a negative emotion. If we are afraid, we cannot compete. We are afraid to be bold in a race; we are afraid of losing the ball; we are afraid to express ourselves. We may fear defeat; we may fear our own ability to perform on the day; we may fear injury – or that we will fully recover from injury; we may fear meeting the coach after a bad performance; amazingly we may even fear winning, fear that we will not be able to cope with it.
When we think of fearing God, we should not have in mind the fear we might experience in our sport. I found the following comments by Emmanuel Oladipo helpful:
“Paul walked his talk, living what he preached in the fear of God. This was not fear in the sense of cringing dread but a befitting awe and reverence as he worked through each day in the perspective of eternity. This is approved of by God, but communicates sheer madness to those with a different mindset. Controlled and constrained by extraordinary love, how could Paul restrain himself from telling out the good news to everyone”.
Here are 4 other translations of the verse:
we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord (NLT)
because we stand in awe of the one true Lord (Voice)
being conscious of fearing the Lord with respect and reverence (AMP)
We know what it means to respect the Lord (CEV).
As we train and compete, coach or administer, let us be motivated by a healthy and positive fear of God – and then we need fear nothing else!