One controversy in professional sports today is the matter of prayer on the field. Sometimes after a big play or a victory, a player will drop to his knees and thank God. Some people object to this practice.

One newspaper writer suggested that the playing fields should be off-limits to such religious practices. He said that anything having to do with God should be confined to church. To him, it’s “absolutely ridiculous” for people to talk to God anywhere else.

As Christians, we would disagree with this kind of thinking. But we sometimes give the impression by our behavior that we believe it. We set Sundays aside to worship and serve God but act as if the rest of the week is ours to do with as we please.

For the believer, however, living for God is a 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week proposition. Notice Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 5. When he talked about walking “as children of light” (v.8), he wasn’t referring only to the way we behave in church on Sundays. When we are filled with the Spirit, we will exemplify compassion, kindness, humility, forgiveness, thankfulness, and love all the time.

The Christian life is not for Sunday only. It’s a day-to-day, all-the-time way of life—even on the playing field.

  — Dave Branon