Saturday, June 12, 2010

Running a Spiritual Race

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 - "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

Do you think that the race the writer is talking about is an actual race? No. The race he is talking about is our spiritual journey. Our race is long, like a marathon. In a marathon, we get a great prize if we finish first. God wants us to finish our spiritual race, too. It would be nice to be first, but most of us won't. We get a prize to finish, and that is heaven. When we run, we have to go through training. In a spiritual run that training is reading the Bible. Running aimlessly means to go away from God and we don't want to do that. We want to read the Bible and share it with others so much that it becomes natural. The only problem is, is that people preach, but are hypocrites. They don't actually do what they say. If that happens they would be disqualified and we don't want to be disqualified. Now that seems confusing but the bottom line is, we want to read the Bible, share it with others, do what we preach, and finish the race God has planned for us.