Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26, NIV)
After a new swing change starts to feel comfortable on the driving range, we take it to the golf course. But it only takes one or two stray shots before we say to ourselves, “This is not working!” We go back to our old ways, hoping our problems will be corrected by some wonderful combination of magic and osmosis. It’s a stupid plan driven by this underlying thought, A change for the better isn’t really possible for a player like me.
In our off-course lives, we face similar battles with doubt. Though we say our God is all-powerful, we get discouraged quickly and wonder what, if anything, is really possible. Can we ever really change for the better? Can we ever really be imitators of Christ?
Let me answer first by sharing with you a story that appears on the pages of linksplayers.com. It’s a few years old now, but it comes from Brittany Lincicome, winner of the ANA Inspiration, the LPGA season’s first major, two Sundays ago. Lincicome had won this tournament before, and as a long hitter on a big golf course, she had every reason to be confident. Yet she admitted she was shaking like a leaf.
Here is part of that profile from 2008:
On course, the biggest challenge for me is staying positive. I can get down on myself. I need to trust that Christ has a bigger plan for me. Off the course, I am challenged by having to schedule the day, getting everything done that needs to be done. There aren’t enough hours in a day sometimes!
…My favorite verse is Matthew chapter 19, verse 26—“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” This has been a great verse for me as an athlete in competition. I was young when I qualified for the Tour. I had been homeschooled and did not play on a college team before joining the Tour. I found myself playing with many of the superstars I had looked up to as a junior golfer. So competing on Tour was not just believing in my own abilities, but really believing and trusting in God’s plan for me and believing that my hopes and dreams were possible with him.
To put everything in God’s hands like this, we have to be willing to let go of the steering wheel of our lives. For Christ, this meant following through with the Father’s plan to go to the cross on our behalf. Jesus showed how hard this was, humanly speaking, when he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Our own cries resound with a lack of assurance at times. This is precisely why we need to go to God’s Word and read passages like Matthew 19:26. Our feeble hearts need reminding that God is ready to work on our behalf. In study and prayer and worship, those hearts are fortified in faith. We can come to a point of renewed trust that the God we preach is the God who truly provides, even when we cannot see the possibilities.
—
Dereck Wong
April 14, 2015
Copyright 2015 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.