Home Plate

It all starts at Home Plate.

The baseball hits the bat with a “crack!” and the hitter is off and running. He watches the ball soar into the air and becomes more confident with each passing second. Sure enough, it’s a single and the crowd cheers! Like that hitter, we’re at home plate looking down the baseline, ready to make the hit!  Over the coming weeks, we’ll see how to run the diamond, but...
before we push off from home plate, let’s be sure we’ve got this: Home plate is our connection and dependence on God. It’s where He grows us up spiritually. He wants more for us and loves us more than we can possibly imagine. Learning about God through consistently reading the Bible and communicating with Him through continuous prayer gives us strength to live a life for His purpose, by His power, trusting and depending in Him alone. Growing up spiritually is the opposite of growing up in the world. In the world, growing up means becoming more independent. Spiritually, growing up means becoming more dependent on God. When we start there, we have all that we need to make it to first base and beyond.

But it all starts at home plate and then the bases are followed in order to live life to the fullest. After all, a player would be thrown out of the game if they decided to run the bases backwards or out of sequence. Similarly, as Christians, home plate needs to be established first, as this is the foundation that everything else is built on.  

So, what are we waiting for? We have the knowledge and tools to score big, to bring lives to Christ and to bring glory to God’s name.  

READ, THINK and LIVE… Read and apply the Bible.

1. Jesus highlighted the greatest commandment and our main purpose in life when he was speaking with the Pharisees.

Question: What is your main purpose in life? How can understanding that purpose help you get to first base?

Matthew 22:37 (New Living Translation)

Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”

Answer:

Think back over this week. Is God prompting you in any particular way to act or think differently? What verse or key thought has impacted you the most?

PRAY… God, what do you want me to know and do?

Ask God to reveal to you where you are in “the game” and how you can progress to the next base. Thank Him for giving us a perfect example of a home run life – Jesus Christ.

Questions for Discussion— Try these in a group, with friends or at the dinner table.

1. Do you have an event or moment from your past that seems to be defining your future? A dream that hasn’t been fulfilled, or is now dead or dying? What was it and what has been your response?
2. Barb shared that living a Home Run Life starts at home plate with our connection to God. If you were asked to describe your spiritual batting average, where 1.000 means you feel connected to God 100% of the time and .000 means you have never felt connected to God, what number would you say describes you? Explain.
3. Which best describes the way you‘ve been approaching life up to this point? Discuss.

– The EMPTY life (Your purpose with your power).

– The UNFULFILLED life (Your purpose with God’s power).

– The FRUSTRATING life (God’s purpose with your power).

– The FULFILLING life (God’s purpose with God’s power).

4. What do you think it will take to trust God more, to start at home plate in the way God desires for your life?