Run for the Prize

I’ve been trying to go running lately.  

And as I run, I often ask myself questions like, “Why are you doing this to yourself; you have enough things to do?” or “Who cares if you take a little break?”  It is difficult to set goals for myself, and hold myself accountable to those goals, so that I can fight the temptation to slow down, or give up.

Then I wonder, in how many areas of my life am I this lazy?  How often do I set my goals low, and then quickly offer myself forgiveness when I don’t meet the goals I have set?  In how many places do I find myself running the race as if I have already won the prize, instead of running the race in such a way as to win the prize?

There are parts of life where we cut ourselves a little slack, or where we compare ourselves to the people around us, instead of our Creator’s perfect standard.  It is probably not too difficult for you to think of some areas like that. 

• In our relationships we can be afraid to have the difficult, yet important conversations.   
• In our spiritual disciplines of prayer and Scripture reading we make excuses for low standards.   
• In our giving and service we can be self-centered, or self-serving   
• As we seek entertainment, we find it difficult to maintain high standards for purity and message.

The truth is, it is easy to think of examples of times that we have sinned by walking slowly when we are asked to run.  We are asked to trust God, and run in the path of his commands, and sometimes we are too afraid, or lazy, to follow those directions.

Scripture tells us about a solution for this sin. 

Philippians 3 tells us that we can glory in Christ Jesus.  We have a righteousness that comes by faith.  Our forgiveness of sins is a free gift.  But we are not to act like it, when it comes to our walk of faith.

“Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

  -Philippians 3:13-14

Verse 15 makes it clear that “all who are mature should have such a view of things.”  It is maturity to run in such a way as to win the prize, even knowing that the prize is a free gift.

We run that way when we seek God’s will constantly through study and prayer.  We hold our heavenly destination in front of our eyes.  We endure hardship as discipline, and we consider Jesus’ love and sacrifice so that we don’t quit, because we remember that our hardships are nothing compared to the suffering he endured that we might have that heavenly destination.

When we find ourselves tempted to run in such a way as though we already have the prize, we can pray the prayer that David prayed in Psalm 139:23-24

“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.”