As long as we are alive, we are always in the race of life, it is up to us on how we choose to run it. Some people when they try out for a team, they will bust their butts during the tryouts in order to make the team, they run the extra lap, ask the coach for advice, come early, stay late, seem so sincere. Then once they get the uniform, they start slacking off, thinking the uniform says it all. Sometimes, we are like that as Christians. We get saved and think we have earned God's favor by confessing our sin etc. and that under the name "Christian" we don't have to prove ourselves, that the name says it all. A few years back I spoke out a word of prophecy that went something like this: Many have seen victories in the past and some are asking WHY am I not walking in the same victories I used to walk in? • You have stopped coming to practice • Not faithfully attending services & fellowshipping with the body of Christ • Stopped paying attention to my Word (the Bible) • Stopped operating in the Gifts of the Spirit • Stopped praying and talking to Me, (your Lord & Savior) Subtlety things that once were important to you in your walk with Me, began to regress because you stopped doing what was necessary spiritually.
The Bible says, Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, and without Faith, that it is impossible to please Him!
The minute we get away from the fundamentals, the bottom can fall out. Things are always at their best in their beginning - exciting, new, and fresh!
Commitment gets you into life's race, but training and discipline with action will keep you in the game.
I love this quote by Tom Landry, a former Dallas Cowboy Coach:
"A coach is someone who tells you what you don't want to hear and has you see what you don't want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be!" (I believe this to be so true!)
To finish our race strong, we must: Walk in Love, spend time studying the Word of God, live by Faith, Tithe, Praise Him sacrificially, and BE THANKFUL!
Our personal best is what God is looking for and in 2 Chronicles 16:9 the bible says "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth, to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him...".
There is a final game and when Jesus comes back, those who are ready, practiced, prepared and waiting in anticipation will go to be with Him to heaven.
2 Timothy 1:6 - For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power,
of love and of self-discipline.
