Throwing Up Bricks

Warning for the sports averse: I'm talking basketball and prayers here.  You are completely forgiven if you haven't been watching any of the NBA Finals.  I'm not a big NBA guy, but when my old Denver Nuggets made a run, I got sucked in.  Here's my promise to you: if you could care less about the NBA there's STILL something for you in this Blog post.  Especially if you've ever prayed for anything.

Did you see any of the action last night?  With the Lakers threatening to go up three games to one in a best of seven series, Orlando, in front of a rabid home crowd...choked.  They started throwing up bricks at the foul line, and it eventually did them in. Magic center Dwight Howard was 6 for 14 from the free-throw line. Forward Hedo Turkoglu was 8 for 13.  What's worse than their average was their timing; Turkoglu missed two in the last minute, Howard missed two to put the game away...with 11 seconds left on the clock.

Diminutive, slowing and aging (by professional sports standards) Guard Derrick Fisher for the Lakers was two for seven from three-point range.  But the two he made, absolutely won the game. Timing is everything.  So what's the difference?

I am certainly not qualified to explain why one team wins and another doesn't, but I was watching the faces of the men involved, just like everyone else parked in front of their television for Game Four, and I couldn't HELP but read the expressions on the faces, and see the confidence - or lack of it - in the eyes of the three players I'm talking about.

The last two times Turkoglu and Howard stood at the free-throw line you could SEE that they were throwing up a wish - hoping against hope that the ball might somehow land in the hoop. But when Derrick Fisher stood outside the three-point line for his last two attempts (two attempts so critical that the game would not have been won by the Lakers without them), he KNEW they were going in.  And he knew it before the ball ever left his hands.

Did you ever pray and feel like you were throwing up bricks? Standing at some critical juncture in your life, hoping against hope that somehow God might answer your prayer and give you the outcome that you desired?  Is it possible to take on life outside the three-point line and KNOW that God will hear and answer your prayer before it even comes out of your mouth?  What kind of confidence would that give you, knowing that He hears and answers your prayers?  Did you know that you CAN have that kind of confidence.  The Bible says:

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him.  1 John 5:14-15 

God reveals His will for our lives through His word (the Bible) and through the inward leading of the Holy Spirit.  I encourage you to feed on the words of God and ask God to reveal to you His will for your life.  Does that mean you get everything you want in life?  No, but it just might mean that God gets everything He needs from your life.  And you won't be standing at the foul line, throwing up bricks anymore.  Lakers in five.