go for the gold

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

    Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.

    And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

     Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

What's the Big Idea??

"You know that in a race all runners run. But only one gets the prize. So run like that. Run to win!"

1 Cor 9:24

  Think of it this way:

 How many of you have been watching the Olympics on T.V.? Well, I'm sure someone could tell me then what kind of medals they give out for first, second, and third place. What is the third place medal made from? Bronze. The second, is silver. The first place is made of Gold!

If you were going to train for the Olympics, which one of these medals would you be trying the hardest to win? The gold one, of course. We may not win the gold, we may not win any medal, and there is nothing wrong in that as long as we tried our best. But still we would enter into our training with our minds set on coming in first.

   The Bible tells us that as Christians we are in a kind of race, and we should give our all to that race. When we become Christians, that's just the beginning. That's like the gun that is fired to signal that the race has begun. Now we are supposed to do all we can to press forward in our desire to become like Jesus. We are not supposed to drift along in our Christian lives, but we are to do all that we can to develop and grow.

And the way we do that is by learning about how God wants us to live and then trying our best to obey Him. Sometimes that is hard to do, and we may not think we can. But if we try and try and try again, we will become stronger and stronger until someday we will be able to do those things that we could not do before. Don't be satisfied with just making it over the finish line. Strain and push yourself to do the very best you can to become like Jesus. GO FOR THE GOLD!!!