Preparation and results are synonymous
Last week, my family and I were in Arizona for the Cincinnati Reds spring training. While we were there, we had the amazing opportunity to go to the Reds practice facility a few hours prior to one of the games. It was a pretty cool. We were right there among the players. We managed to get a few autographs and to get a tour of the practice facility.The highlight of the experience for me was stepping out onto the practice fields. Most of the players were wrapping up and heading in for dinner, but there was one player out there by himself still taking batting practice. That player was Joey Votto. For those of you who don’t know, Joey Votto is one of the greatest hitters on the planet. He is so good in fact, that the Reds saw fit to award him with a 12 year contract that will pay him somewhere in the ballpark of $250 million. He is a former league MVP, and has made it to several all-star games. Yet, despite all that past success, while all of these other players were heading in for dinner, there he was still working on his craft.We watched as Joey hit line drive after line drive to left field. As a left handed hitter, this is not an easy thing to do. Almost every major league baseball player can pull a baseball, which in Joey’s case would be hitting the ball to right field. But very few players in the history of baseball have been able to hit the ball consistently to the opposite field, hence, why Joey was working diligently on doing just that.Fast forward a few hours to the actual game. We are now in the stands watching as Joey hits a line drive base hit to left field in his first at bat and a 400 foot home run to left field in his second at bat. I looked at my family and said, “That looked just like batting practice”. At that moment, the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said, “That is exactly how you should prepare in your walk with me.”
Related Post: Why I No Longer Read My Bible And Neither Should You…
I have heard several seasoned and respected men of God say things along the lines of, “What you do in secret when no one is watching, God will reward in public.” That is really to say that our courage, our boldness, our faith, and ultimately the fruit we bear for God’s Kingdom is directly related to intimate time that we spend with Him in private. In order to truly trust God when people are watching and when there is much on the line, we have to have spent that intimate time with Him that establishes His reality, His goodness, and His faithfulness towards us.As Christians, we often watch in amazement as men and women do incredible things for God. We see God use people to heal physical ailments, lead movements that bring millions of people to Jesus, or even just walk around every day with a joy and zeal no matter what their circumstances. Then we ask those people what the secret is, and almost every one of them starts by talking about their intimacy with Jesus. They talk about the hours and hours that they have spent in prayer and reading their bibles. We hear about the difficult seasons that they walked through that ultimately strengthened their faith. These men and women have simply approached their walk with God the same way that Joey Votto approaches hitting. They diligently work at it every day when no one is looking, and they have full confidence that the results will come naturally when everyone is watching.Personally, this is difficult for me. I have a long way to go, and I am stating publicly here that I need the Holy Spirit’s help with this one. How about you? Are you ready to go deeper? Are you ready to commit to doing the hard work of practicing His presence every day when no one is looking? If just a handful of believers will stand up and make such a commitment, the impact for God’s Kingdom will be greater than anything we can imagine.
"Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come" (1 Timothy 4:8).