Teevo: Run To Win

There’s A Prize To Be Obtained In The End)

TO THE BIBLE: 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 MSG
“You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.”

LET’S TALK
What we read in our opening verse lets us know that, in Christianity, we run to win and obtain the prize.

We’re likened to sportsmen: “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 soon 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” (1 Corinthians 9:25–26 AMPC).

The Bible shows you what to do to be at the top of your game: become temperate in all things; exercise self-control.

Like an athlete, there’re things you should do and there’re things you shouldn’t, just so you can keep in form. Those athletes do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we do ours for an incorruptible crown. Hallelujah.

Notice what He says in the twenty-seventh verse: “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27).

He instructs us to do everything to win, but according to the rules, so you’re not disqualified. Don’t run to miss the prize; run to win it!

And as you run your race, and fulfil your ministry in the Gospel, lay aside every weight (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Don’t let sin be an encumbrance in your life. Refuse to allow anything to take your focus off the Master.

Remain steadfast, unmovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Go Deeper

2 Not that I have already attained,[ c] 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. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have [ d]apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14;

12 Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,

² Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2 AMPC

Speak:
I’m a spiritual sportsman, disciplined to do the Word, and fully yielded to the leading of the Spirit. I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize and fulfil God’s call and destiny for me. I remain steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Hallelujah!

Daily Bible Reading
ONE YEAR
John 4:1-26, 1 Kings 1
TWO YEAR
Mark 8:34-9:1, Numbers 11

Act:
Study and meditate on 1 Corinthians 9:25-26.