"The chatter around the NFL is about a great athlete with great character who says and does all the right things and is a relentless leader for his team"
Does God Care Who Wins Football Games? ” I prayed fervently before each of the three Super Bowls we Minnesota Vikings played in. We played against the Dolphins, the Steelers and the Raiders. I don’t know about the first two games, but I was sure God would be on our side for the game against the Raiders! After all, they were the villains of the league, and it was hard to believe they had more Christians on their team than on our saintly Vikings. We lost. “
I see Tim Tebow as a modern day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Liddell] Eric Liddell who plays for the glory of God
Of couse the dissimilarity is that Eric Liddell wouldn’t run on the Christian Sabbath (Sunday) and Tebow plays on Sundays. (And before posters take him to task for this … answer this: do you watch sports on Sunday?)
I suspect that Tebow doesn’t pray that the Broncos win (and my prediction is that they will be crushed by N.E. on Sat night) but that he will glorify God!
I admire him!
Of couse the dissimilarity is that Eric Liddell wouldn’t run on the Christian Sabbath (Sunday) and Tebow plays on Sundays. (And before posters take him to task for this … answer this: do you watch sports on Sunday?)
I suspect that Tebow doesn’t pray that the Broncos win (and my prediction is that they will be crushed by N.E. on Sat night) but that he will glorify God!
I admire him!
[Jim Peet] answer this: do you watch sports on Sunday?)Actually, no, I don’t (unless you count the three minutes or so I see of soccer on the TV at the Italian place we get pizza from on our way home from evening worship service). Not condemming those that do, but you asked. ;)
Funny, though, this past week, Joe (the pizza place owner) had the Broncos game on, and I saw the play in OT that won it. That’s all I saw, and pretty much all I needed to.
I’m being lighthearted, by the way.
On a serious note, though, I know parents whose kids play, and the leagues play on Sundays at times, and the kids are seeing a role model, a good one, too, from what I can tell, but they are fine with missing church every other week to play football. They are told by their parents (I know because we parents have talked about it) that as long as they keep a good testimony, and have a chance to witness to others around the sports, that missing church is OK. I do have a problem with that, but that likely has little or nothing to do with Tebow. But these kids are good/great athletes, so they might think they get a pass because they have a God-given talent to play.
He and Bob Costas and a host of other Christians claim God doesn’t care about football games. They couldn’t be more wrong. He cares about everything. He notices a sparrow that falls to the ground and He notices big business sports games. Plainly stated, God cares who wins and loses.
However — HOWEVER! — this is no way means that God necessarily grants wins to saints and losses to infidels. Nor does it necessarily mean that saints get a supernatural edge. It does mean that in respect of the doctrine of Providence it is okay to say God did something favorable to Tim Tebow last week by granting him a W.
NFL football is not “just a game.” It’s a big business and every game is a huge business affair. If Tim Tebow were in any other business we’d want him to succeed at that business when he was deliberately giving God the credit for his success and using the success as a platform for doing good to the helpless and speaking out the Name of Christ. So, yes, I prayed Sunday morning to God that Tim would win against the Steelers. I felt that he needed that win for his career and I think his career is, at the moment, pleasing to God. And I literally thanked God for his victory Sunday afternoon. I’m sure thousands of others, including his mom and dad, were doing the same. We all knew his career in Denver banked on it.
I don’t feel that he has to win against the Patriots to save his career so my prayers for him are less earnest.But what do I know? I just know that I also want the businessmen and workers in my church to pray to God for success in whatever it is that they do. This doesn’t preclude hard work, opposition, setbacks, discouragement, and even failure. It does mean, however, that whatever successes we do get we can humbly and truthfully say, “God helped me do it.” I think that is what Tim does.
However — HOWEVER! — this is no way means that God necessarily grants wins to saints and losses to infidels. Nor does it necessarily mean that saints get a supernatural edge. It does mean that in respect of the doctrine of Providence it is okay to say God did something favorable to Tim Tebow last week by granting him a W.
NFL football is not “just a game.” It’s a big business and every game is a huge business affair. If Tim Tebow were in any other business we’d want him to succeed at that business when he was deliberately giving God the credit for his success and using the success as a platform for doing good to the helpless and speaking out the Name of Christ. So, yes, I prayed Sunday morning to God that Tim would win against the Steelers. I felt that he needed that win for his career and I think his career is, at the moment, pleasing to God. And I literally thanked God for his victory Sunday afternoon. I’m sure thousands of others, including his mom and dad, were doing the same. We all knew his career in Denver banked on it.
I don’t feel that he has to win against the Patriots to save his career so my prayers for him are less earnest.But what do I know? I just know that I also want the businessmen and workers in my church to pray to God for success in whatever it is that they do. This doesn’t preclude hard work, opposition, setbacks, discouragement, and even failure. It does mean, however, that whatever successes we do get we can humbly and truthfully say, “God helped me do it.” I think that is what Tim does.
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