Ready:
“For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.” – Psalm 100:5
Set:
When your coach asks you to come to his or her office after practice, how do you respond? Perhaps you come with eagerness or curiosity. Maybe you come with trepidation. If you’re a coach and your athletic director emails you to come to a meeting after your season concludes, what does that stir in you? You might come with anticipation or concern—or merely out of obligation.
Psalm 100 is a call to come to the Lord: “come before him” (v. 2), “enter his gates” (v. 4). We respond to this call not out of fear, thinking we need to appease God so He won’t get upset with us. We also don’t respond to this call out of a sense of duty, as though we need to check a “spiritual activity” box on our to do list. The final verse of Psalm 5 gives our motivation for coming to God, and at the heart of this motivation is His faithful love.
We come to God because He loves us. We experience God’s love in His goodness, which is His generous favor and kindness to us though we don’t deserve it. We encounter God’s love through His faithfulness: He is always true to His character and promises. We can count on God’s love because His love “endures forever.” God sets His loving faithfulness and goodness on “all generations.”
None of us, no matter who we are or what we’ve done, ever have to wonder if God’s love for us is real. Jesus Christ, who comes as God in the flesh, is the definitive proof of God’s love. Romans 5:8 tells us, “But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” When we respond in faith to Jesus and what He accomplished through His death and resurrection, we have this assurance: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
Come to God in every situation as an athlete or coach. Come to God no matter how you’re currently feeling. Come to God because He is faithful and good. Come to God because He loves you.
Go:
What hinders you from coming to God consistently or in certain situations?
How does Psalm 100:5 impact your perspective on coming to God?
Workout:
Overtime:
“Lord, I praise You and thank You for Your love. I’m grateful that You welcome me and want me to experience Your goodness and faithfulness. I pray that I would respond to Your call to come to You every day and in every situation. Amen.”