![]() ![]() If you are serious about seizing the gold and standing on the winner's platform, you will have to enter into a lifetime of training. More to the point, you cannot run a marathon even if you try really, really hard. It dawns on you: You cannot run a marathon. The principle for the raceīack to your home and the U.S. Victory necessitates that we run with undying persistence and steadfast endurance until we arrive at the finish line victorious. Winning this race will require great endurance, perseverance, patience, and resolve. Winning the race will require great endurance The goal is not perfection, but progress. The finish line of faith is a life that is more Christian today than yesterday. A spiritual champion is one sold out to Jesus, straining to become more like him everyday. The prize is becoming a spiritual champion. Winning is not beating the other runners. "Run in such a way that you may win" (1 Cor. They come in different sizes and at different stages. Unlike the marathon and more like a steeplechase, this race is full of obstacles, barriers, hurdles, and hazards. We are instructed to run and keep on running. Like the marathon run, this race has no time outs, no breaks, no intermissions, and no halftimes. Don't compare your track to someone else's track. While the destination is the same for everyone - a life like Jesus, the journey that gets us there is different for everyone. Like the orange cones on the roadway that indicate the path of a long distant race, God has marked out a race distinctive for you that will take you on an adventure. ![]() It has been marked out especially for you. Are you engaging in the necessary disciplines and activities that will enable you to grow and mature in Christ-likeness? C. Our natural bent is toward sinfulness and laziness. Are you more like Jesus today than you were yesterday? The race is a conflict in that there is an internal struggle of the soul. In many respects we race not against opponents, but against ourselves. The race is a contest in daily progress toward Christ-likeness. The Greek word for race is agon from which we get our word agony. The race is both a contest and a conflict If you have trusted in Jesus Christ God has done just that. Imagine the thrill if an Olympic committee knocked on your door selecting you to represent our country? Imagine, God knocking on the door of your heart selecting you for his team. He has chosen you to run the race of a lifetime. This time, however, the Olympic Committee is not selecting God Almighty has picked. In this race, like the Olympic race, you have been chosen. The writer of Hebrews spoke of this race, "Therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us" (Heb. It, too, becomes the central focus of your existence. The characteristics of the raceĪs a believer in Jesus Christ, you run a race. It is what gets you out of bed in the morning. To run the race well - to win it if you can - becomes the central focus of your existence. This is why I was born." This race becomes the great passion of your life. You say to yourself, "This is the race I was created to run. At night you dream about standing on the podium after the race and hearing the national anthem, seeing the flag raised, and bending low to receive the gold medal. You allow yourself to imagine that maybe you do have what it takes to run the race. You picture yourself mingling with the elite athletes of the world. ![]() And just yesterday you were sweating so profusely, dripping like a faucet on the clean kitchen floor, your spouse asked, "Did you go for a jog?" "No, I just walked out to the mailbox."Īfter the shock of being selected passes, you are gripped by the realization of what's happening in your life. The one time you began a running program you ran down your driveway, onto the sidewalk in front of your house getting to the end of your yard only to turn around exhausted and panting barely making back to your La-z-boy. You are surprised because the farthest you've run in years is from the couch to the refrigerator. We have determined that out of the two hundred seventy-five million people, you are the one person in America with a chance to bring home the gold medal in the marathon. We have statistics on every person in the entire nation on computer. We have been looking for someone to run the marathon in the next Olympics. Imagine a group of people coming to your home and interrupting your Twinkie-eating, TV-watching routine with an urgent message: "Good News! We are from the United States Olympic Committee. ![]()
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