A Heart for Prayer: 5 Days of Drawing Close to Father GodSample

Win the Day

I’m a big Oregon Ducks football fan. Over the past ten years, the Ducks have enjoyed a measure of success, including a couple trips to the national championship game. Though they didn’t win those games, it was a fun ride nonetheless. 

During the 2010 season when they lost to Auburn and Cam Newton in the championship, Coach Chip Kelly began rallying his team around a mantra that would eventually become popular even outside of the football field: Win the Day.

Coach Kelly was essentially reminding his team to take care of what they could control today instead of looking down the road too often, to treat every game like it’s the national championship. 

He would later say, “If you don’t win the day at practice on Tuesday, how do you expect to win the game on Saturday?”

Jesus gave us his own version of “win the day” in Matthew 6:34: “Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself” (TPT).

Leading up to that verse, Jesus was instructing his listeners to stop worrying about earthly things like money, food, and clothing. He even referred to how the birds are fed by the Father and how much more valuable people are to him (Matthew 6:26 TPT).

Paul said something similar in his letter to the Philippians: “Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life” (Philippians 4:6 TPT).

I love that—“Be saturated in prayer throughout each day.”

Instead of worrying about tomorrow, we can put all that energy into the most constructive thing we could ever do, which is coming to our Father in prayer. 

When we pray, we are putting ourselves in a position where he can bring a mighty victory.

When we pray, we win the day!

Reflection: Write down a list of each worry you’ve had recently. One by one, bring each of those worries to the Father before crossing each one off. Now write down a list of things you’re grateful for and thank the Father for his provision in every area of your life.