adamjthompson
Puritan Board Freshman
How should we view prayer as it relates to sports games? Let's say I'm participating in a professional sports game.
Every option I've thought of or heard seems objectionable to me:
Option 1) Pray my team wins. By extension, I'm praying that the other team loses. Seems wrong to ask God to help me by making them lose.
Option 2) Say God doesn't concern himself with who wins. This would seem to be adding an extra-biblical teaching simply to get out of the above issue. Plus, if I'm a professional athlete, who wins or loses can have financial and other consequences.
Option 3) Say if we're godly we won't pray about who wins, but we'll pray that God is glorified in all things. (This would also include similar options like praying that we are edified by the game, etc.) While I'm sure that's true on one level, on another level it seems to be a cop-out. We'd never tell an unemployed person that they shouldn't pray that they get a particular job (even if that means some other person doesn't get the job)
The problems related to this issue seem to stem from three areas: the overall triviality of sports, the moral neutrality of each side (it isn't good vs evil, like wars often are), and the fact that me winning means another loses.
How should we view prayer as it relates to sports? (Professional or otherwise.)
Every option I've thought of or heard seems objectionable to me:
Option 1) Pray my team wins. By extension, I'm praying that the other team loses. Seems wrong to ask God to help me by making them lose.
Option 2) Say God doesn't concern himself with who wins. This would seem to be adding an extra-biblical teaching simply to get out of the above issue. Plus, if I'm a professional athlete, who wins or loses can have financial and other consequences.
Option 3) Say if we're godly we won't pray about who wins, but we'll pray that God is glorified in all things. (This would also include similar options like praying that we are edified by the game, etc.) While I'm sure that's true on one level, on another level it seems to be a cop-out. We'd never tell an unemployed person that they shouldn't pray that they get a particular job (even if that means some other person doesn't get the job)
The problems related to this issue seem to stem from three areas: the overall triviality of sports, the moral neutrality of each side (it isn't good vs evil, like wars often are), and the fact that me winning means another loses.
How should we view prayer as it relates to sports? (Professional or otherwise.)