Many people have argued that you cannot be a Christian and a successful athlete. They say this because they say that you cannot have the "killer instinct" that is needed in order to be a successful. Not only has Eric Liddell proved this to be true, but so have many athletes, including Tim Tebow. These guys won constantly, and it was their desire to glorify God that motivated them. Below is more explanation on why Christians actually ahve advantage as athletes.
1. "With God, all things are possible."
2. "If God is for us, who can stand against us?"
3. Eric Liddell was motivated to succeed because he understood that the more He succeeded, the more people would want to listen to him. He understood that success would likely provide increased opportunities for people to listen to him and allow him to share the gospel. I can't think of any better motivation to succeed. That in itself should help us to have the drive needed to win. It should provide is the confidence and motivation to do what is necessary to win in a manner that glorified Christ. It is tremendous motivation to do what you need to to win so that you can have the opportunity to accept the win and give all the glory to God. And in the process, this could very well mean sharing Christ with others.
4. You can have a "killer instinct" in a way that glorifies God. It comes from confidence and motivation like King David had. Confidence in abilities God has blessed you with, confidence in fact that you have worked hard to develop those skills, and an attitude which is absent of all fear, and a confidence that visualizes the victory and expects the victory to happen.
5. Practice time should be motivated by desire to glorify and worship God. Drive in practice should be there to get better to increase chance that you will win and be able to glorify God as a result big winning.
6. Important that our attitude in completion also represents Christ well. If I go out and am fearful, not strong and confident and fearless, then my witness will suffer. "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of confidence". Having the proper attitude and confidence is a big part of worshiping God in the process.
There will always be a ton of sport psychology mentalities and strategies, but it is important that those strategies are always seen through the lenses of glorifying God. The Bible should be my first resource when it comes to thinking about attitudes and mentalities in sport. Don't complicate things. For instance, the Bible says be confident and don't fear. It doesn't go into all these different strategies for how to be confident and not fear...It is simply a commandment that we must follow because of who God is. Sport psychology strategies often provide methods with steps for how to be confident and not fear, but as a follower of Christ, He simplifies it for us. He gives us the commandment and we can rely on His strength. And again, we can follow the commandment because of who He is, and because He provides us the strength to do it.
