Swimmer Riley Gaines explains: “To know God is to love God”

Published: June 25, 2024

Swimmer Riley Gaines explains: “To know God is to love God”

By Movieguide® Contributor

Former Kentucky swimmer and national champion Riley Gaines joined the Sports Spectrum Podcast with Jason Romano to talk about her faith and when she truly came to that faith.

In August 2020, Gaines decided to prioritize her faith.

“So that was, I would say, when I developed my faith, but even looking back now, I still don’t think I fully understood everything back then,” she revealed. “I kind of just did it. Yes, I listened. Yes, you know, those things when I went to church, but I don’t know if in my day-to-day life I behaved like a churchgoer, like a Christian, like someone who embodied Christ and his message.”

When Gaines realized that her beliefs and her actions did not match, she began to change.

“And so I started really spending more time in Scripture, reading His Word, His Gospel, of course in prayer, spending time with people around me who are strong in faith and who continue to serve as an anchor for me today,” she said. “I really understood that cycle, and knowing God is knowing God, or I think knowing God is loving Him.

She continued, “If you love Him, you obey Him, and if you obey Him, He reveals Himself to you so that you can know Him better. And I almost got caught in that cycle. And it starts, of course, with reading the Scriptures and really getting to know God and communicating with Him.”

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“I’ve always been spiritual. But in the last year I’ve really had a spiritual awakening. I’ve seen so clearly how God works through people, how He has His hand over me in this situation, in this struggle,” Barker said last year of her fight for the truth, according to The Christian Post.

Now Gaines is a new author with a book titled “

A summary of the book reads:

Riley examines the perspectives of athletes on the other side of this debate, dissecting their arguments with science, facts, and logic. She also asks what has happened to free speech and free expression in this country, where it now seems almost impossible to have a well-reasoned debate. And by telling her story, Riley reveals what is at stake when truth-seekers remain silent about the injustices women face due to radical agendas.

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