Persistence in goals

I have often thought that being persistent to achieve goals, even after failure, could be wrong.  I have heard that doing so is to go against God and His will.  I am now realizing that this is silly.  God teaches us through our failures.  And it is common sense that failure is part of success.  Only Jesus is perfect.  That does not mean that there are not times where it is wrong to pursue something.  Such a time could be if something is not righteous or if God has called you to give up a pursuit.  We also need to ensure that pursuits do not become idols.  After all, we need to keep Proverbs 3:5,6 in mind in all things - seeking God and allowing Him to direct our paths.  But in general, working hard to achieve a goal, keeping God the centre, striving to do it for HIS glory and striving to worship Him through it, that is a good thing.  That does not mean that you will always be successful, but such pursuits, even if they are failed pursuits will be used by God.  And if you don't try, you never know how God could have used it.  Again, unless God says don't pursue, why wouldn't tou pursue as worship to God and see how He chooses to bless your efforts?  I could have not pursued golf because so many people were better than me, and if I had gone that route, I would not have my family.  You never know how God will use your efforts :).  Praise Him!!

Another thing to remember is that if you have a goal you are passionate about, as long as it is God-honouring, there is a very high likelihood that God instilled in you a live for that topic of pursuit.  It could mean that the pursuit is pleasing to Him for that reason... This is not always the case if course.

Play with "focused indifference"

It was either Sam Snead, or Byron Nelson, or Gene Sarazen who said that successful golfers play with a "focused indifference".  I played with this attitude in the club championships recently, and won for the first time.  I loved this way of thinking.  It allowed me to be confident and play for God and His glory without being scared or worrying.  I was focused on doing my best with each shot, but I didn't worry or fear results.  I was focused like I needed to be to be successful, but I was indifferent about the results, which allowed me to relax and allow my talent and preparation to come through.  It allowed me to do better than I would if I was focused, but caring too much.

Confidence in a Christ-like manner

-Don't disrespect opponent

-If you don't believe you are the best, you won't be.  Part of doing your best is preparing your mind to be the best.

-Play your hardest doing your part, expect to bring about the desired results, but submit to whatever happens, allowing God to take care of the results.  You can do this when you are confident and do absolutely everything in your power to be successful.  What you don't want is to step away knowing that you made mistakes that cost you.  I don't believe God will necessarily make you make mistakes.  I have never felt that in my life, and I don't believe it is the nature of God.  I do believe that he has blessed my efforts despite my fear, and despite my mistakes as part of His grace, but I don't believe he causes us to make mistakes.  Therefore, go out and confidently go out and do your best for the Lord.  Be confident and play to succeed.  The goal is to worship the Lord by playing in a way that honours Him.  You never want to walk away having lost feeling like your mistakes and lack of preparation and fear cost you the desired results.  As long as you do everything in your power to win, if you don't, you can know that God took care of the results as He saw fit, and that it wasn't His will for you to win, and that despite the fact that you didn't win, you worshiped Him well in the process, because you gave your best for His glory.