Grace,Love And Humility

From the inspirational book, An Athlete’s Most Pressing Need by Isaiah C. Thomas, comes an amazing devotional on what it means to have grace for yourself, what it means to receive love, and how humility sets you up for better success during a tough, sports season. This plan will be a more in-depth word study guide on the words love, grace, and humility to ensure that athletes understand their meaning, more of their identity in Christ, and have a more balanced thought life while playing their sport.

Hi, my name is Isaiah Thomas I’m currently a basketball skills coach and head trainer for zaychrisbasketball. In previous years I spent countless hours perfecting my basketball skills solely in hopes of joining the NBA. My experiences through playing in AAU and college have shaped my perspective on what my life is really about. I hope throughout this short devotional plan you can understand more of what grace, love, and humility means and how you can experience these during a tough season in sports. I pray that knowing more of what each of these three words mean will give you the ability to live the student-athlete life biblically. Regardless of what sport you play, this devotional is for you!

Grace Word study:
Let’s start off with a couple of definitions of grace and what it feels like to receive such grace. Knowing what grace feels like and seeing it expressed through words can help you pinpoint if you’ve experienced grace or not. This means that if you haven’t experienced grace before, we’re confident you will after this.
The Greek word for grace, “charis” means
unearned favor, an unearned gift, a favor or blessings bestowed as a gift, freely and never as a merit for work performed.
The Hebrew word for grace: khen (חן)
Google definition of grace: simple, elegant, or refinement of movement

Bible Grace Definition: God’s Extended Favor toward us

Kingdom Grace is a light touch from heaven... you know how when someone tells you “Good job” or “I saw you putting in that work today” and how light you feel afterward of like, “Man I needed to hear that, that made my day. When you receive kingdom grace from God it’s the same way. When he speaks to you, you may feel a stillness or a stillness in the atmosphere
or you’ll have a sweet cry of thankfulness from your core. Imagine a fresh breeze off of the ocean shore or a ceiling fan on a hot day. God's grace comes in like a flood and is as gentle as a whisper and when you let his word permeate your mind, it washes away all the mistakes you’ve made.

Here’s a Scripture Reference to help you understand a little bit better how grace is the bedrock for this life for us as believers Titus 2:11

Practical Step: Pray and listen for God's still small voice like it says in 1 Kings 19:11-13 to speak to you about what grace is and where it can be applied in your life. If you notice any similarities in each definition take them, write them down, and talk to God about them to see what he says. Talking to God will demolish any strongholds you have and strongholds are just lies you may have believed about yourself like “I’m not good enough” or “I’ll always be this way”. Abiding in his ever-so-loving presence will calm your fear and diminish your anxiety.

Meditate on what you hear the Lord speak to you and think about it constantly. Do it as many times as you can in a day and repeat it so you can have muscle memory and create a new trench of truth in your neurological pathways.

You made it through the first part of An Athlete's Most Pressing Need Word Study Plan. If you enjoyed this short devotional. Check out the book on Amazon,
Walmart, Barnes and Noble, TBN, and more!
Also there will be a special link to purchase the book from our website at the end.

Don’t Chase The Hype; Chase The Vision

Love word study:
We show love by expressing it outwardly. A lot of times love starts off with a feeling, then it turns into an outward expression. One of the things that I learned that was so beneficial for me is that, if you’re trying to show love to someone but it doesn’t seem genuine in their eyes, maybe you have to rethink, reimagine, and get filled with the feelings of love again so you can love outwardly. Let’s start off with a couple of definitions of love and what it feels like to receive such love. Knowing what love feels like and seeing it expressed through words can help you pinpoint if you’ve experienced love or not. This means that if you haven’t experienced love or want to reignite your flame, we’re confident you will after you read this.
The Greek word for love: ἀγάπη
This is the love that is the love of choosing to, it’s also the love of serving with humility.

The Hebrew word for love: hesed and ahavah

Love definition Google: an intense feeling of deep affection and adoration

Love definition Bible: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love from the kingdom is patient love, it’s kind, it’s still, it’s an enduring love and it’s a love that listens, it’s a love that is humble and a love that is devoted. It’s also a love that you can feel. It’s like when you get a new puppy or a newborn baby. You love them and feel those feelings of love but then that love turns into an outward expression of those feelings. You start to buy dog treats or you begin to start looking up swimming classes so said baby can grow up knowing how to swim. Love is a beautiful trait to have because having love for someone is the glue for any relationship. You can love confidently because you were loved first and if you can’t receive the love you know you need and deserve, maybe there’s a reason.

Practical Step: Pray and listen for God's still small voice as it says in 1 Kings 19:11-13 to speak to you about what love is and where it can be applied in your life and ask yourself How do I see love in my own life? If you notice any similarities in each definition take them and run with it. Recollect talking to God because that’s what will demolish the strongholds of unloving feelings and unloving outward expressions in your heart and recollect that abiding in his ever-so-loving presence is what calms all fear.

Meditate on what you hear the Lord speak to you and think about it constantly with optimal efficiency until you feel the nudge to do differently.

You made it through another passage of An Athlete's Most Pressing Need Word Study Plan. If you enjoyed this short devotional. Check out the book on Amazon, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, TBN and more!

Also there will be a special link to purchase the book from our website at the end.

Don’t Chase The Hype; Chase The Vision

Humility word study:
Last, but not least, let’s get into a better understanding and feel for what it’s like to receive humility. Humility in its essence can be called many different names and it can be expressed in different ways. Some people express humility by listening to their parents or coaches while other ways of expressing humility are letting your friends correct you even if they are younger than you. Regardless of the approach, having humility will feel the same, and knowing what humility looks like and seeing it expressed through words and actions will help you pinpoint if you have acted on humility or not.

The Greek word for humility: Tapeinophrosune means having a humble opinion of one's self and recognizing it wasn’t all by your doing while still being confident in your abilities. Being haughty is the opposite of humility, you can be humble while remaining confident in who you are and what you are capable of doing. A humble confidence is the intricate balance of thought patterns you should have of yourself to stay close to the kingdom of God.

The Hebrew word for humility is Anavah

Humility definition Bible: meekness, lowliness, absence of self.

Here’s a Scripture Reference to help you understand a little bit better how humility can be expressed for us as believers 2 Chronicles 7:14

To be humble is to help. To have kingdom humility is to not look at yourself too highly to where you can't help a brother or sister in need. It’s better to be known for your humility than your work ethic because humility is a doorway to trust and if you can’t trust then you won’t be able to be humble enough to listen or be listened to. To be humble also means that you let the other person or teammate go into the game before you because you understand that to win this game you need your friend's skill set. Just because you let your friend shine doesn’t mean you won’t shine too. The Bible says that if you humble yourself under his mighty hand he’ll lift you up. When you have a humble approach to life and sports God will lift you up and make you bright amongst men and women.

Here’s a Scripture Reference to help you understand a little bit better how humility is and how it can be expressed for us as believers 1 Peter 5:5-6.

In context this verse is talking about younger people humbling themselves under their elders and in due time God will lift you up. However; I believe that this verse can be used out of context as well because it’s talking about humility also towards people who are the same age as you. Being humble doesn’t mean you think of yourself as having no value or importance. What it means is that you are submitting what you think to God so he can fill you up and give you what you need. I know you’re smart, I know you’re capable and ready for the next phase in your life but be of good courage. Being humble means allowing the rod of God to direct your steps in speech so he can get the glory out of your life and from my personal experience not having control of my own life has been the most peaceful and life-giving thing I’ve ever experienced.

Practical Step: Pray and listen for God's still small voice as it says in 1 Kings 19:11-13 to speak to you about what humility is and where it can be applied in your life. Just as it says in 1 Peter 5:5-6 How can you take on an attitude of humility in your faith? Ask to receive a heart posture of humility and like always, If you notice any similarities in each definition, reflect and take note of it, talking to God will weaken the strongholds, and abiding in his ever-so-loving presence calms all fear.

Meditate on what you hear the Lord speak to you and do it with optimal efficiency until you feel the nudge from the Holy Spirit to do differently. His yoke is easy, it’s light and his commands are not burdensome. I’ve heard it like this before; he has honey for you but it may come out of a rock.

You made it to the last day of An Athlete's Most Pressing Need Word Study Plan. If you enjoyed this short devotional. Check out the book on Amazon, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, TBN and more!

Also there will be a special link to purchase the book from our website at the end.

Don’t Chase The Hype; Chase The Vision