"God answers my prayers everywhere except on the golf-course."
Angel as pacemaker
See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Exodus 23:20I read this verse during the 2013 London Anniversary Games on a day when I was meeting an athlete. We looked at the verse together in terms of the angel running ahead of the athlete – not quite what the writer of Exodus had in mind but a helpful analogy nonetheless.
It is a phenomenal promise that God is sending an angel V
Ahead of you;
To guard you;
To bring you to the place He has prepared for you.
In strategy planning people sometimes say that you need to know the end before you can work out your plan to get there. God not only knows your end – he has prepared the place! Jesus talks in John 14 about preparing a place in the eternal state for us.
Not content with preparing a place for us, God also makes sure we get there safely by sending his angel ahead of you (to show you the way and perhaps set the pace) and to look after you and keep you safe.
In the midst of the uncertainty and anxiety that sport can bring, remember that God has sent an angel ahead of you. We know this in our heads, we sing about it on Sundays but the challenge is when the rubber hits the road, to remember and cling onto the promise that God has sent an angel ahead of you to guard you and bring you to the place you need to be.