Living the life through prayer

The Pittsburg Steelers have had some rough press as of late, what with Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes.

The Steelers finally gave up on Holmes and recently traded him to the New York Jets.

However, there are players on the Steelers who not only profess a faith in Jesus Christ, but live it as well.

One of the best players (and hardest hitters) on the team is Troy Polamalu.

In seven seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Troy Polamalu has won two Super Bowls and played in five Pro Bowls.

With his success, Troy strives to maintain Christian character.

In an interview with CBN, he said, "Pride is tough. You go to high school, and it's pride, courage. It's all these types of words that we use to motivate us. I don't think there's anywhere in the Scriptures ... where pride was ever a positive characteristic of anybody. That kind of egotism is a really tough struggle—especially in this business. ... It's a big struggle of mine."

Polamalu goes on to say that it's not the obvious things that are the hardest to deal with in his life.

"The big things are the easiest to turn away from. It's the accumulation of small things that are hard. People know adultery's bad and murder's bad. I'm not going to go out and sleep with the first girl I see. But when your eyes start wandering, and you become a little more jealous and envious, and these passions start rising up inside of you -- that's when it really becomes dangerous. Because the Devil doesn't work that way. His strategy is always to be very subtle and continue to build on top of that evil seed that he planted."

What keeps him rooted? Prayer.

Polamalu says, "As your prayer life becomes more and more fine tuned, and your conscience becomes more and more fine tuned, you're able to start plucking away at these things."

I encourage us all today to bathe our lives in prayer - in conversations with God. Letting the conviction (not the condemnation) of the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts.

David writes in Psalms 131:1,2:

"My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me."