{"id":15787,"date":"2022-03-28T04:50:14","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T09:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=15787"},"modified":"2022-03-28T04:50:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T09:50:17","slug":"keeping-our-eyes-on-the-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=15787","title":{"rendered":"Keeping our Eyes on the Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After church yesterday, our family converged at Austin Country Club for the PGA\u2019s World Golf Championship Match Play finale. I\u2019ll admit I stayed in the guest suite out of the 90+ degree, sun-blaring heat. I watched the game on a large screen until the players and spectators made it to the 15th hole. That hole is where our suite looked over with a great view. In fact, the game ended at the 15th hole and we watched the celebrations and interview with a bird’s eye view! What a blessing!

Austin\u2019s own University of Texas alumni, 25-year-old Scottie Scheffler, not only won the championship, but he became the World Champion. Congrats to ALL the golfers who walked away with a nice payoff.

From our suite, we could see how the ball was the center of everyone\u2019s attention. Just a little 1.680 inches-in-diameter ball and the accuracy of the golfers, made for Scottie winning the $2.1 million first prize, and the runner-up Kevin Kisner, earned $1.3 million. Not bad for a few days\u2019 work\u2026\u2026but their wins were not an overnight success. They had kept their eyes on the ball since they were kids. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As I watched the spectators crowding around to watch the game, I remembered another story about keeping our eyes on the ball. A dad said: \u201cMy 7-year-old son seems to have natural abilities for sports, and most recently, for baseball. I\u2019ve taken him for batting cage practice, I throw the ball to him a lot and I go with him to his team\u2019s practice, but I don\u2019t really know what to tell him to do because I wasn\u2019t a baseball player. I really did want to help him so I asked one of my \u201cjock\u201d friends, \u201cWhat should I do to help him? My friend responded \u201cHe\u2019s seven. You only need to tell him one thing\u2026..\u201dWATCH THE BALL! It works for any sport when you\u2019re seven\u2026..just WATCH THE BALL!\u201d

And, that\u2019s what those golfers and spectators were doing yesterday. Like that coach said \u201cKeep your eyes on what is the most important thing\u2026.the ball. That one thought will provide the foundation any ball-player needs for any sport that they\u2019ll play.\u201d It certainly paid off for those golfers yesterday!

The players of ball sports have been taught that \u201cWatch the Ball\u201d principle, and now it\u2019s a habit for them, and that\u2019s the habit that has served them well. It\u2019s getting all distractions out of the way and focusing their attention on \u201cthe right things\u201d. I gave that analogy to emphasize the importance of keeping our eyes on Jesus and His Word so that we can stop the intruders of our thought life that try to come in and steal our peace and joy from us.

I think our Heavenly Father must want to take our faces in His loving hands when we\u2019re focusing on all the distractions, issues, anxieties and worries of our lives. Lovingly, he says: \u201cLOOK at ME! Watch Me! Focus on Me!\u201d

Hebrews 12:2 says \u201cWe must focus on Jesus, the source and goal of our faith\u2026.\u201d When we take our eyes off Him and His Word, life will take our eyes to so many things \u2013 the wrong things \u2013 the distracting situations, people, and problems. It works for successful athletes who have developed a habit of keeping their eyes on the ball. Perhaps we would be become successful and fruitful followers of Christ, if we habitually focus our attention on Him and His Word.

Twila Paris recorded this song years ago, and it still blesses me and reminds me where my eyes should be focusing today:
“I’m not looking behind me, at mistakes I’ve already made.
Hope is living inside me. I believe that my debts are paid.
Trusting You now, I know I can make it
I made a vow, I don’t want to break it
Lord, I’m keeping my eyes on You, following You, following You.
My Lord, I’m keeping my eyes on You, following You, Following You, my Lord.”\u00a0
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After church yesterday, our family converged at Austin Country Club for the PGA\u2019s World Golf Championship Match Play finale. I\u2019ll admit I stayed in the guest suite out of the 90+ degree, sun-blaring heat. I watched the game on a large screen until the players and spectators made it to the 15th hole. That hole…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23245,23243,23242,23244],"tags":[23230,23227,23236,1210,1769,23226,23239,6181,10509,3993,40,23234,23238,23241,23228,23235,23232,23240,23237,9052,23231,6186,23233,23229],"class_list":["post-15787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eyes-on-the-ball","category-golf-championship","category-pga","category-scottie-scheffler","tag-15th-hole","tag-austin-country-club","tag-ball","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-eyes-on-the-ball","tag-focus-on-god","tag-focus-on-jesus","tag-golfers","tag-hebrews-122","tag-inspiration","tag-kevin-kisner","tag-look-at-god","tag-lord-im-keeping-my-eyes-on-you-2","tag-pga","tag-prize","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-source-of-faith","tag-spectators","tag-twila-paris","tag-university-of-texas","tag-watch-the-ball","tag-world-champion","tag-world-golf-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15790,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15787\/revisions\/15790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}