Do you get nervous the night before a game? So nervous you can’t sleep? We’ve all been there. Whether it’s the excitement of a youth league or travel game, or the anxiety before a high school or college championship game, baseball has a way of keeping us up at night.
We get nervous because we don’t know the outcome of the game.
We get nervous because we don’t know if we will play well.
We get nervous because we don’t know what will happen that we haven’t prepared for.
We get nervous because we don’t know what our opponent will do that we aren’t expecting.
Proverbs 19:23–“The fear of the Lord leads to life, so that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil.”
We wouldn’t get nervous if we already knew the final score.
We wouldn’t get nervous before the game if we already knew we would play well.
We wouldn’t get nervous before the game if we knew we were prepared for everything.
We wouldn’t get nervous if we knew every tactic of the opponent before they employed them.
What is true about baseball is also true about life.
We get nervous about the game of life because we aren’t confident of the final score.
We get nervous about life because we don’t know if we can be successful.
We get nervous about life because we don’t feel prepared for everything.
We get nervous about life because we don’t know what our enemy will throw at us.
But the truth of Scripture makes one thing abundantly clear: those who “fear God” (know him, submit to him, worship him, follow Jesus) have no reason to be nervous. They sleep soundly. They fear no evil this world can throw at them.
We wouldn’t get nervous about life if we knew the outcome is secure for believers.
We wouldn’t get nervous about life if we knew Jesus was successful so that we could fail.
We wouldn’t get nervous about life if we let the Scripture prepare us each day.
We wouldn’t get nervous about life if we let Jesus fight the enemy he’s already defeated for us.
Lord Jesus, I’m so anxious and nervous about life. But today I place my faith in you. Lead me to live, sound sleep, and protection from evil. Amen.
