Devotional for Athletes — When Competing All Day and Surrendering All Night

Cover of When Competing All Day and Surrendering All Night

You compete in the day. You surrender at night. This 140-day devotional is for the Christian athlete whose faith has not yet learned to stay on through the whole game.

Devotional for Athletes

When Competing All Day and Surrendering All Night

A daily place for the athlete who competes hard and surrenders harder.

A 140-Day Reflective Devotional Journal

Book 22 of a 36-journal series · 140 daily reflections · 5,040 guided prompts across the series

  • 140 daily reflections
  • Scripture + guided journaling space
  • Written for Christian athletes
  • Five honest minutes a day
  • Instant eBook download

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Look inside

These are actual pages from the printed book — click any page to enlarge

Interior page 1Interior page 2Interior page 3

Why this is different

Most devotionals

  • Inspiration to read
  • Reading only
  • Generic encouragement
  • Read once, then forgotten

This journal

  • A daily practice you actually do
  • Reflection + Scripture + writing space
  • Written specifically for Christian athletes
  • 140 steady days that build over time

Who it's for

This is for

  • The believer whose faith needs to follow them off the field.
  • Anyone who wants structure without pressure
  • Small groups, church families & gift-givers

This is not for

  • Anyone wanting a quick, read-once motivational book
  • Readers who don't want to write anything down
  • Those after a study guide without daily reflection

An established series

36journals in the series
140days in each
5,040guided reflections
5–10minutes a day

Part of a growing library of guided devotional journals from Stilling Waves Press.

About this journal

The full story, in our own words

A 140-day daily practice for the athlete whose performance and prayer have been living in separate rooms.

For Christian Athletes — Strength & Character in Christ. Each day sits beside a quoted line from a Christian writer across the centuries — kept in their own voice, with a quiet word-gloss underneath so the older language opens rather than closes.

  • A daily page for the faith the scoreboard cannot see.
  • Five honest minutes a day — between the workout and the locker room.
  • For the athlete who wants God in the stadium and the silence after.

Seven stages across 140 days: Stage 1 — Waking Up — Where You Are · Stage 2 — A Time of Releasing — Quietly · Stage 3 — Staying Close to God — Still Real · Stage 4 — Moving Forward Slowly — The Middle · Stage 5 — Being Together · Stage 6 — Quietly Giving · Stage 7 — This Stretch.

Seven stages, seven images. Dawn becomes open hands becomes a lamp becomes a mountain — then a vine, a stream, and finally a ring of stars. The arc carries you forward by image, not by argument.

Inside these pages you will also find:

  • Seven things on every day's page — an Opening line. A Reflect question. A Rest cue for the body. A Today's Focus. A Touch line. A quoted Scripture or Christian writer with a word-gloss. A closing Meditation. The same seven elements, every day, for 140 days.
  • Older language, opened in real timethy becomes your. Thee becomes you. Every classic line — Scripture in older translation, devotional prose from earlier centuries — carries a small plain-English gloss directly underneath. Nothing is left for the reader to puzzle out.
  • Real names, never anonymous — every quoted line is attributed — drawn from a curated corpus of Christian writers across the centuries and chosen to fit each journal's shape. The voices are named, the sources are known, and the corpus is wider than any single tradition.
  • Liturgical interludes between stages — between the seven sections, the journal slows. A Commentary. A Poem. A Prayer for This Season. A closing Reflection. Real rhythm — not page numbers.
  • Borrowed prayers, and yours — selected prayers from saints and faithful authors carry you forward, while A Prayer for This Season pages hold space for the words that are only yours to write.
  • One poem per section — short, unhurried passages between stages — small enough to memorise, deep enough to keep returning to.

Sample prompt: "What part of your faith only happens after the lights are off? Bring it into the morning here."

Most devotionals push you to do more. This one settles you into what is already true.

You know the moment before practice or before the game — when the body has to remember what it knows and the mind has to get out of the way? Underneath is a quieter question — about who you are when the result is not yours to control, whether the result is a win, a personal best, or just showing up again tomorrow. This journal sits with that quieter question. Five honest minutes a day, before the warm-up or after it. The work does not get easier. But you stop carrying it alone — and the outcomes, the ones that come and the ones that don't, stop being the whole picture of who you are.

A daily place for the athlete who competes hard and surrenders harder. Written for the believer whose faith needs to follow them off the field. Open to day one.

What’s inside every day

The same daily rhythm on every page: opening line, reflect question, rest cue for the body, today's focus, touch line, attributed quote with gloss, and a closing meditation.
Older Scripture and classic prose come with a small plain-English gloss directly underneath — thee, thou, unto — opened, not assumed.
Every devotional line is attributed, drawn from a curated corpus of trusted Christian voices across the centuries.
Between each of the seven stages, a Commentary, a Poem, an A Prayer for This Season page, and a closing Reflection.

Same daily rhythm, 140 days. One steady shape you learn once.

How it will feel

Feel the jaw — and let it be quieter than your thoughts. The next season will be different. The growth you did in this one was not wasted. Your best performance is probably not behind you. Keep training. The injury season is forming character that will outlive the physical game. The comeback is real. Injuries heal. Slumps end. Seasons turn.

You carry what you are carrying without flinching. Your jaw is not tight when you wake up. Your hands open while you are reading. You finish one thing before the next one interrupts. You stand without bracing. By that point, this can begin to feel like just who you are.

Built to form you — not just inspire you

Not Inspiration — Formation

This is not a devotional to read when inspired — it is a daily practice to return to regardless. Real faith is built through structured daily formation, not occasional motivation. Finishing this journal produces something that starting ten others cannot.

What This Journal Returns You To

  • You will look back at the grind and see it built something you could not have ordered separately
  • The ranking, the scholarship, the contract — He opens doors faster than you expect
  • Notice which parts of the sport drain you versus feed you

Sample prompt: "Sit with this: a faithful father would tell you something — about how you spend your time"

A thoughtful gift

What this journal offers a friend is presence, not pressure. 140 days of gentle company that does not require them to be ready, only willing — the rare kind of gift that holds space rather than fills it. Come with the pressure of performance. He is not indifferent to the weight of it. Close this knowing the character built in the training is more permanent than any trophy.

More in the 140-Day series

Published by Stilling Waves Press, creator of the 140-Day Reflective Devotional Series. Our journals are designed to be completed, not merely read — combining Scripture, reflection, and guided writing into a daily spiritual practice.

STILLING WAVES PRESS

Begin the 140-Day Journey

Five minutes a day. One page at a time. A slower way through the wait.

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