Running the race – part 6

“Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

All this didn’t come naturally to Paul. He had to work at it—just as we have to do. He said, No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”(v. 27).

Paul had, like all of us, the potential of stumbling in his Christian faith. He could have drifted from this race through sin, through neglect, through distraction, or through quitting when the going got tough. But Paul didn’t let that happen. He didn’t want to have to experience to be disqualified himself.

He disciplined himself. He, as he describes it, beat his own body, and made it his slave.

As I share this with you, you are aware as I am, that we at times, get lazy, and keep up the discipline needed to run the race…

Some of us fall during the race. But you know what dear brothers and sisters, we can get up! We can stand up and move forward because this race is not about the beginning but whether we reach the end, the finish! On Youtube you find numerous races 400, 800 meters and longer where athletes fall, trip over, and they get up and focus on the finish and remarkable recoveries happen and they finish first! This is true about those who fall and seem to have lost their way. The Bible is full of it… my life is full of it. It is never too late to stand up, to refocus and to run the race with your eyes fixed on the price, passing that finish by God’s grace and with the help and presence of the Holy Spirit.

In another Scripture Paul says: Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).

Application: If you still are strongly going; make sure that you realize you are graced by God and that He carries you. If you have failed, are side-lined, or are still laying down. I exhort you: stand up, don’t give up and condemn yourself… in the midst of the race there can be a new start for you. Return, invite God and move with Him towards that price which is still waiting for you… and He will say: well done!

Prayer.