Run to Win

Friday, November 13

Run to Win

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 1 Corinthians 9:25

There is a price to pay for greatness. No one wants to be a loser. No one grows up wanting to be a failure. The athlete practices and runs sprints with weights around his ankles. He learns to push himself so on the day of the challenge, he is ready. The athlete trains even on days when the motivation to do so is not there. Even pushing the body to its limits. Why? Because he understands there’s a great reward in the end. Paul says to us in I Corinthians 9:24-27 that if we’re going to follow Christ, we need to be ready to race. We need to be prepared to do what it takes to follow through. We need to be ready to run. Because we are running to win!

Sadly, many people along the way stop pursuing a deep, loving relationship with Christ, walk off His path of righteousness, and sit down to rest. But allegiance and love to Christ demand a lifelong commitment. As our Lord Himself said, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

We’re going to lose, maybe even more often than we win. Our lives are littered with war stories, and missed opportunities, failures and mishaps. But we get back up. We keep running. No one can win a race with intermittent effort. Christlikeness cannot be reached with that kind of effort either—it is an ongoing pursuit. So Paul says, “Let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained” (Philippians 3:16).

We need to run the race toward the victory of the kingdom of God, we are running a kingdom race together. And the best news is that God has already secured the victory:

Keep running, friends, the race is already won!