God created a perfect world. He created man and woman—Adam and Eve—and put them in this world to enjoy him, his creation, and one another. They thrived. How could they not? Eternal joy was at their fingertips. Perfect harmony with creation and its Creator.

But then they believed a lie and everything fractured: their relationship with God, with each other, and with the world around them. All of it is now scarred. What happened?

The Devil showed up and convinced them that God was holding out. You can read about it in Genesis 3. He convinced them that they couldn’t trust what God had told them. In a moment of weakness, they believe the lie of the Devil over the truth of God. To this day, we still experience the effects of that choice. And to this day, the Devil is still prowling around trying to destroy us and everything we love through his lies (1 Peter 5:8). While he is defeated (Revelation 20:10), he is still devious and clever in his schemes against us.   

Athlete, let me ask you this: if you spend the bulk of your days thinking about, training, talking about, and playing your sport, do you think the Devil ignores that part of your life and focuses on something else? Maybe he does. I can’t say with certainty how he is trying to steal, kill, and destroy each of us (John 10:10), only that he is committed to those three end games. If sport takes up the majority of our time, I am guessing it’s a focal point of his strategic initiative to sabotage our souls.

We need to be ready.

How do we guard ourselves against him? I think it starts with identifying the lies he hopes we will believe when it comes to our sport.

Lie #1: Your worth is tied to winning

I’m guilty of perpetuating this disordered way of thinking. I recently had the opportunity to introduce an old friend of mine before his speaking engagement. Instead of talking about his walk with the Lord and how I saw him show faithfulness in hard times, I defaulted to sharing about his two Super Bowl wins. Why? In large part, I think, because that’s what people want to hear. But also because I too often buy into the lie that who we are is a result of what we’ve done. That’s an earthly way of thinking that leads to death—not life. 

Because at some point we will lose. If our identity is directly tied to success, what happens when failure inevitably comes knocking? 

I remember playing a key role in losing the state championship for our cross country team when I was a junior in high school. I didn’t go to school for the next couple days. I didn’t want to show my face. I was embarrassed and felt ashamed. 

The following year I played a key role in helping our team win our first state championship. The race was on a Saturday. I couldn’t wait until Sunday morning to show up at church. I couldn’t wait to go to school on Monday. Now, I believe it’s perfectly fine to be excited about performing well and sad or frustrated when things don’t go as planned. But my identity in high school was too often linked to the result of a race—good or bad. I know I’m not the only one. Defaulting to finding our primary identity through sports success or failure is far too common for us as athletes. 

We need to call out this lie, bring it into the light, and replace it with the truth.

The lie being fed to us is that the outcome of a competition says more about who we are than the outcome of the crucifixion. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection not only made a way for us to be with God for eternity, but it also purchased a new identity for us as God’s adopted sons and daughters. Why would we settle for less than that? Why would we primarily look towards our sport instead of our Savior?

Athlete, the Devil wants you to believe that who you are is a result of what you’ve done. The truth is that who you are is the result of what Christ has done on your behalf. 

Lie #2: The fan’s voices hold more weight than the Father’s

A friend of mine called me a couple years ago in tears. His last game went worse than he could have imagined. As a high profile athlete, he felt the heat from “fans” on social media. He shouldn’t be starting. He shouldn’t be on the team. He shouldn't even be playing this sport. He was the worst player they’ve ever seen.

“Didn’t you just hit the game winner last week?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“What were the ‘fans’ saying after that?”

“That I was clutch. That I was a winner. That I was one of the best the school has ever seen,” he said.

“Why do care so much about their approval?”

He got the point. We give too much weight to the voices of people who haven’t earned the right to define who we are. We ride the fan’s wave of affirmation when things go well and crash when we hit the inevitable shore of athletic failure.

Fans cheer when things go well and turn on you the second the momentum shifts. That’s what is, unfortunately, expected of them as fans (I’m guilty of this as a fan as well). So why do we let their response define us? I think part of the reason is that there is nothing quite like having fans cheer for you when things are going great. Few things in life compare to the roar of the crowd—a roar in response to your performance. It’s fun to chase that feeling.

At the end of the day, when we seek the crowd’s approval over God’s, we are gambling with our identity. The thrill of what we could feel quickly disappears when the game is over—or when we lose and they turn on us. The Devil uses this to his advantage.

The lie being fed to us is that the voices in the stands (or social media) determine who we are. The truth is that who we are is determined by our Creator. He gets the first and final say.

Back to the story about my friend. Do you know what his situation reminded me of in that moment? 

Jesus. 

Seriously. 

It reminded me of when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the crowds were going crazy, falling at his feet, and worshipping him (Mark 11:1-11). A few days later those same crowds were screaming for him to be crucified (Mark 15:13). That’s what crowds do. They respond in the moment according to how they feel. And the Devil wants us to find our satisfaction or misery in their response. Athlete, don’t fall prey to his lie. 

Enjoy sport for what it is. But look towards God to know who (and whose) you truly are. 

Lie #3: Your results are blessed (or cursed) according to your righteousness

Of course none of us would ever admit this, but our prayer life and actions leading up to a competition often reveal a perspective on God that goes something like this: if we obey God, he is more likely to bless us in our competition and if we sin, he is more likely to curse us.

The lie the Devil wants us to believe is that God can be used or manipulated. How does this play out practically for us? 

In the days leading up to a big competition, you decide to be extra obedient. Maybe you pray more. Maybe you read your Bible more. Maybe you stop looking at certain images or videos on the Internet or social media. The reason you do this is to get God in your good graces so he will bless you when the competition comes. 

It’s okay to admit it if you have done this. I’ve done it, too.

But we also need to recognize that it’s a lie the Devil wants us model our lives after.

Tim Keller, in his book Prodigal God, talks about why this lie is so dangerous:

“If, like the elder brother, you seek to control God through your obedience, then all your morality is just a way to use God to make him give you the things in life you really want.” 

For God to be glorified through our lives as athletes, our primary focus needs to shift to what he wants. Our futile attempts to impress God into blessing us show that we misunderstand the essence of the gospel. The gospel shows us that God is pleased with us, not because of anything we do or have done but because of what Jesus has already done for us.

How do we combat the Devil’s lie of thinking that we can manipulate God through our righteousness?

We change our motivation.

Yes, we still pursue righteousness. But not because we think it will earn us an athletic blessing. We pursue righteousness because only true and lasting joy can be found in aligning ourselves with who he is and how he has called us to live. The end game for our obedience is joy in him and treasure in heaven, not temporal happiness through athletic success and trophies that will end up in a garage sale.

Lie #4: God doesn’t care

Perhaps the biggest lie the Devil would like us to believe when it comes to God and our lives as athletes is that God just does not care about sports. That somehow, God has bigger things in the universe to focus on than the result of some silly game. Sure, we may be able to give God glory, but it will probably have nothing to do with how we prepare for and play the game. 

We imagine that God is only concerned about the platform that sports gives us to share his love with other people. The danger of this view of God is that it can ruin your motivation for playing. After all, if he desires glory in all things (which he does) yet doesn’t care about your sport, you are wasting his time and yours.

We see in the Gospel accounts that God pursues us relentlessly, even sending his son to die for us. Moreover, the parables and stories, not to mention the rest of the New Testament, portray a God whose interest in us extends far beyond what we might call religious activities to include all of life.

Dr. Ed Uszynski, who has worked with elite athletes for the last three decades at the intersection of faith and sport, says this:

“A crucified yet victorious Christ should be proof enough that God doesn’t operate with the same definitions of winning and losing as humans. But God most certainly does care who wins—just not at all in the same way we do and certainly not in the way implied by most post-game interviews. He cares about everything that happens in the universe. His sovereignty extends to the atomic level, where every atom of every cell arranges itself in relation to every other according to His plans and purposes.”

Perhaps Abraham Kuyper summed it up best when he said,

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry ‘Mine!”

The point is that God is not indifferent about anything that takes place within his universe— which includes how you play and think about your sport.

Athlete, God cares. And he wants you to believe the truth—as he defines it—over the lies of the Devil.

ps. If you are convicted by any of these lies, know that you are not alone. It doesn’t make you a bad Christian. It just makes you human. What sets Christian’s apart from the rest of the world is not perfection, but forgiveness. Confess to God that you have believed lies over the truth and ask him to help you recognize it quicker next time. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat.