Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident. (Psalm 27:3, NIV)
I am one who agrees with many of the criticisms about the pace of play on tour. On both the men’s and women’s sides, you’ll finish half your Sunday sandwich waiting for some of these players to pull the trigger on a single shot.
What’s behind all this? Why does it take a good player—who should be free of all the mental demons you and I have to wrestle with when we have a club in hand—so long to hit the ball?
Simply, it is the quest for confidence.
Much of the time a tour player spends in preparing for a shot comes in conversation with his caddie. They pore over their yardage books, adding, subtracting, and speculating. How strong is the wind? Where is the worst trouble? Before the player pulls a club, he wants to know exactly what he’s dealing with.
Then there is the preshot routine. I am a quick player, so I wonder what good is going on inside a player’s head when he stares and backs off and waggles and resets. But again, what the player is looking for is a measure of confidence that says, “Go!”
Confidence in golf, then, comes from a knowledge of what is in front of you and what is within you. Wonderfully, we might say the same is true in our walk of faith with Christ.
In Psalm 27, David opened the song with statements of confident assurance in God’s care. The LORD will protect his people. But this is no blind confidence, as some outside the faith suggest. Rather, we live fearlessly because we know who goes before and comes behind: God himself.
But where does this knowledge come from? David wrote of that too. Look at verse 4: “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”
If we are to walk confidently that God is caring for us, we must begin by seeking God and fixating our gaze on him. We must endeavor to know him very well. Good golfers stare down the hole before lining up a putt and stroking it with confidence. Good men and women of God set their eyes on him until he strengthens their hearts for even the most pressure-filled life experiences. Then they step out in faith.
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Jeff Hopper
August 27, 2015
Copyright 2015 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.