Doubt: The Foundation of Faith
5 “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. 6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. 7 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8 Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! 9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today the food we need, 12 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 13 And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.
Matthew 6:5-13
PRAY FREELY
Play freely. Play fearlessly. These are all attributes of the teams that make the winning plays. These are also the characteristics of people who live for God.
We live this way when we bring our life to God in prayer. In my life, I’ve experienced barriers to praying. God knows what we need and is waiting for us to just bring it to Him in prayer. He tells us this in Matthew 6:8: “Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask Him!”
The barriers I have experienced are wanting to find the right words or thinking that my needs are too small for God. As we see, He already knows our needs, so stop worrying about having the right words. How can I say He knows our needs? I can say this because He’s answered prayers before.
In the spring of 2025, during our baseball season, there were two times that I got to our locker room before our players and took the time to just walk through our locker room and pray for each player. I did this because it came up in our Monday morning Scouts and Coaches Bible study when one of the coaches talked about it. I actually don’t remember who, and that’s not the point, but I learned it from others. The key piece in this was that nobody else knew that I was doing it—well, not at least another human being—but God knew.
The Monday after Easter of the 2025 season, I needed to have a conversation with one of our seniors about his life and some of the decisions he was making that impacted our team. I knew this conversation would be difficult, and it ended up taking two hours, with a lot of discussion back and forth covering many aspects of life and even faith. During this chat, I shared with our player that I had walked around the locker room and prayed for each player, including him. At that moment, the chat we were having shifted from confrontational to cooperative, and God’s presence was felt; God showed up. Or maybe I should say God was always there—we just recognized His presence. Looking back, as I walked around the locker room praying, God already knew our needs. He already knew that the players and I would need those prayers two weeks later.
Taking the time to pray allowed our players and me to align our lives with God’s plan for us. Take the time to pray. Take the time to share your needs freely. Take the time to pray and share your needs fearlessly.
If we want to live freely and live fearlessly, we are called to pray freely and pray fearlessly.
Lead well. Love better.
Jeff
Jeffrey Swarr is a baseball coach, author, and educator dedicated to helping others unlock their potential through mindset, resilience, leadership, and positive self-talk. A seasoned high school head baseball coach and author of works such as A Competitor’s Heart and The Daily Competitor, he shares daily insights on personal growth and purposeful living. Jeffrey strives to share his Christian faith with the students and athletes he is blessed to coach. He is married to Emily and the proud father of Simon, Spencer, and Shepherd.