RUN LIKE YOU'VE GOT PLACES TO GO!

Saturday March 24, 2012 – Joshua 18-20; 1 Cor 9.

S:  1 Corinthians 9:24-26.  Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize?  So run your race that you may lay hold of the prize and make it yours.  Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things.  They do it to win a wreath that will wither but we do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness that cannot wither.  Therefore, I do not run uncertainly (without definite aim); I do not box like one beating the air and striking without an adversary.

O:  Paul is comparing our walks of faith to a race and urging us to run as thought we want to win the race.

A:  We have a purpose.  We have a focus.  Those things we need to surrender or deny ourselves today will free us to run our race well.  The prize is eternity with Jesus.  There is nothing on this earth that compares to what our prize will be!  We need to run our race with purpose and focus.  I knew someone who was an amazing athlete.  He was always training, always restricting and honing what foods he ate and what he put into his body.  His body was like a fine-tuned piece of machinery but he never actually raced.  He was so lost in the training that he never actually ran the race.  I don’t want to be a spectator on the sidelines or the person who trains so much they never actually run the race.  God has called me to be in the race.  There are lessons to learn along the way and at times my race may look like a limp or a crawl rather than a sprint.  But God has called me to be IN THE RACE.  Not a spectator.  He has not called me to run perfectly.  I will learn things along the way.  I don’t need to learn them all before I join the race.  I must keep my eyes on my prize – JESUS.  If I take my eyes off my prize and focus on all the other runners my pace will slow and I will become distracted and off-course.  I must run with purpose. I must run like I’ve got somewhere to go.

P:  Father God forgive me for al the times I have taken my eyes off you – my prize.  Lord teach me to fasten my eyes on you each day and run toward you with everything I’ve got in me.  I will fall Lord but I know you will pick me up, dust me off and urge me to keep on running.  I’ve got places to go in you and with you.  Amen.