{"id":29906,"date":"2023-11-10T10:52:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T15:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=29906"},"modified":"2023-11-10T10:52:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T15:52:48","slug":"nhl-player-jacob-slavin-says-he-glorifies-god-on-and-off-the-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/11\/nhl-player-jacob-slavin-says-he-glorifies-god-on-and-off-the-ice.html","title":{"rendered":"NHL Player Jacob Slavin Says He Glorifies God ‘On and Off the Ice’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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@jslavin74\/Instagram.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

National Hockey League player Jacob Slavin says he keeps his focus on God \u201con and off the ice.\u201d After his junior year of high school, Slavin moved away from his parents to play hockey in Chicago. He had dreams of playing in the NHL, and Chicago was his only shot, but during that time, he started struggling with his faith.<\/p>\n

On Sports Spectrum\u2019s \u201cI Once Was,\u201d Slavin revealed when his faith became his own. He said, \u201cI was kind of challenged by one of my assistant coaches. We\u2019re sitting in the locker room, and he looked at me and said, \u2018Jacob, what kind of faith do you have?\u2019 I kind of looked at him, puzzled by the question of like, \u2018What are you talking about? I\u2019m Christian.\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018No, do you have your own personal relationship with Jesus?\u2019 So I was just being challenged, left and right, to really not rely on my parents\u2019 faith anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cI had to have my own personal relationship with Jesus at this point, and so from that moment, I really started understanding what it meant to be a follower of Christ. It wasn\u2019t about works, it wasn\u2019t about anything I do or do not do, but it was all about the work of Jesus on the cross.\u201d Slavin previously shared that Titus 3:7 is his favorite Bible verse. It\u00a0reads, \u201cSo that, having been justified by his grace,\u00a0we might become heirs\u00a0having the hope\u00a0of eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cIf you look at that verse, [it] talks about\u00a0eternal life. He talks about hope, but\u00a0it also talks about being justified by\u00a0his grace and what Jesus did on the cross\u00a0for us. It\u2019s not because of anything\u00a0we can do to earn eternal life. It\u2019s\u00a0not because of how good of people we\u00a0are. It\u2019s all because of what Jesus did\u00a0on the cross. That\u2019s why we\u2019re\u00a0justified.\u201d<\/p>\n