by Shannon Caughey

We began this series of devotions on being a God-honoring coach with this: Coaches who have surrendered their life in faith to Jesus Christ are committed to following him in all areas, including coaching. They desire to always honor the Lord. To better understand what this looks like, we’ve been working through Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1:9-12:

⁹ So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. ¹⁰ Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. ¹¹ We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, ¹² always thanking the Father.

According to v. 10, the goal is this: “the way you live will always honor and please the Lord.” As we’ve seen in this series, honoring and pleasing the Lord includes knowing God’s will, having wisdom and understanding, producing good fruit, deepening our relational knowledge of the Lord, and being empowered by him. Let’s consider one more characteristic we see in Paul’s prayer: God-honoring coaches live with joy and gratitude.

Here’s what Paul prays (vv. 11-12): “May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father.” Maybe we have this idea that seeking to please the Lord means being perpetually serious, sober, and intense. If that were the case, athletes probably wouldn’t have much fun being coached by us. And we wouldn’t have much fun coaching! But Paul describes something different. We honor and please the Lord as we’re consistently joyful and grateful.

Why are we filled with joy and thankfulness? As we read on in Colossians 1, Paul tells us (vv. 12-14): “He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.” God rescues us from enslavement to darkness and the death penalty for our sin when we surrender in faith to his Son Jesus. He gives us real life, true freedom, and an eternal future as part of his people under his glorious reign. God does all of this completely because of his love and grace.

When we grasp this, we are joyful and grateful. Joy is a deep, consistent delight at the core of our being based not on favorable circumstances but rather on the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord. It flows out of gratitude to God for all he’s done and continues to do for us through Jesus. We’re floored by our Father’s love and grace toward us in Christ, and this fills us with joy and motivates to always thank him.

This joyful, grateful response to the Lord then saturates how we live and coach. We’re less focused on circumstances and more focused on God’s amazing goodness to us day by day. We’re consistently thanking our Father for all types of things—big and little—rather than complaining about what’s not ideal. As we’re filled with joy and gratitude, it’s contagious. Our genuine joy encourages our athletes to lean into the joy of competing. Sports are intended to be fun! Our thankfulness for all that comes with our sport—the relationships, the chance to push ourselves and improve, the lessons learned through setbacks as well as victories, and so many other things—models for our athletes a grateful perspective. This undermines the tendency to grumble or take on a “poor me” attitude.

God-honoring coaches are marked by joy and gratitude. Recognize all that God has done for you, is doing for you, and will do for you through Christ. Keep praying for and pursuing the deep, consistent delight at the core of your being based not on favorable circumstances but rather on the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord. May you be filled with joy, always thanking your Father who loves you!

For reflection: Ask God to grow you in living and coaching with joy and gratitude. Ask him to help you daily focus on him, not on your circumstances. Pray that you would have a joy and thankfulness that is contagious.