When he was only 26 years old, Nick Foles was ready to quit and retire from the game he loved so much. Foles’ experience with the NFL in 2015 was so miserable, that he avoided touching a football for 8 months. He considered hanging up his jersey for good.

“A lot of people don’t know this — I’m going to share this right now, because I think it’s important,” Foles stated in a video for a devotional series on YouVersion’s Bible app. “After my time with a certain NFL team, I wanted to retire. This was a year ago. I wanted to retire from the NFL, and I really struggled. I couldn’t pick up a football for about eight months. I had no love for the game, and it was tough.”

The timeline puts the quarterback during his move from the St. Louis Rams to the Kansas City Chiefs. Foles continued, saying that this time was dedicated to prayer and connection with the Lord, which ultimately brought him back from the brink of retirement.

“I kept reading scripture, I kept praying, I kept asking God — and so many of us ask God for signs, we ask God, ‘Hey, please just put it on the wall, like, I want to know,’ but that’s not how it works,” Foles said.

“He’s not always going to do that. He was shaping me. He was bringing me down to my knees…At that moment, through that prayer, He said, ‘Hey, just take a step of faith. You’re either going to stop playing the game of football and you’re going to go onto a different area of your life and I’m going to be with you, I’m going to be the most important thing in your life, or you’re going to step back into football and you’re going to continue to play and I’m going to be with you every step of the way and you’re going to play to glorify me.”

One particular verse helped Foles as he contemplated the situation. He stated 2 Corinthians 12:9 gave him the strength to make the choice to put his heart back into the sport.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ ‘Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.’” – 2 Corinthians 12:9

The break eventually proved to be good for Foles. He said returning to football was the “greatest decision I ever made because of what I went through” and that it gave him a “completely reinvigorated outlook on the game.”

Foles is the now the backup quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, however due to MVP front-runner Carson Wentz being benched due to an injury Foles has been regularly on the field. He recently led the Eagles to a 38-7 victory over the Vikings, landing them a spot at the Superbowl. Foles really has come to the forefront of the team with his astounding talent.

Even then, Foles still credits God for his success. The star player said “all glory belongs to God” in a post-game interview last Sunday. “I wouldn’t be here without any of that. I’m grateful and humbled to be a part of this team…We lean on each other; we play for each other, that’s what is so special about this team.”