But he who listens to me shall live securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil. (Proverbs 1:33, NASB)
If you are going to become a good player, you need to know your tendencies. Do you line up with your shoulders open? Do you play the ball too far forward? Do you stand too far from the ball? As you learn your tendencies, you have a much better chance to hit the ball well and shoot lower scores.
Knowing your tendencies in putting is especially helpful. I know from a brief putting lesson that I line up left of my target and push the ball to the right. Guess where most of my misses are? They are right. The thing about these tendencies is that if you correct them, you have to make sure they don’t sneak back into your game. How do you do that? By practicing the new way, by trusting the corrections. Repetition.
If we want to lower our golf scores, recognizing our propensity toward the “evils” in our game gives us that chance.During a recent Sunday morning message, one of the pastors at our church here in Texas, Tim Cartwright, posted a quote on the screen that lines up with this subject of tendencies: “People who have a grasp on their propensity toward evil have become my heroes.” The definition of propensity is “a natural tendency; bent.”
We all have a tendency, or propensity, to sin. Here is one list of sins from Paul’s letter to the Romans: “…being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips” (Romans 1:29). That’s just a start. You’ll find 11 others in verses 30 and 31. What’s more is that any honest person will find himself on that list.
Knowing our propensity toward evil is a valuable understanding to have. With that understanding, we have a chance to seek a new way, one that comes from following Christ. He will change our bent, and we will develop a more powerful walk with the Lord.
If we want to lower our golf scores, recognizing our propensity toward the “evils” in our game gives us that chance. Bob Rotella once wrote about Tom Kite, “As soon as he detects the slightest problem with any of the fundamental shots, with setup and routine, or with his mental game, Tom drops whatever else he’s doing and heads to the practice area to fix it.” Sounds like a good plan for dealing with the all the sinful, mark-missing tendencies in our lives!
—
Bill Euler
June 25, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.