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Help My Unbelief

The Race

A few days ago, my children woke up excited! It was field day, and they had been training to win at their chosen sports or activities. And it is all about fun and competition, but life is a bit different. The race and the competition, while alive and well, are still centered on who you have to beat and what has to take place in order to be victorious, but it is not about fun. The race in life deals with the competition that happens between our spirit and our flesh! And both are often fierce competitors.

Both are capable of strenuous training, but only one can win. You are the only one who decides the training that you will go through. You are the only one that can decide how hard you are willing to train. Are you willing to endure the hardship and pain that accompanies denying oneself those fruitless pleasures of the world? Many athletes give up various foods and drinks from their diets, they give up the distractions that would keep them from the days practice, and they give up the option to quit and throw the towel in when things get hard.

I want to be an olympian in Christ! But that is not something that comes easy. And we all have the opportunity to take home the gold; to stand in front of our Heavenly Father at the finish line and hear "Well done, good and faithful servant!" Everyone has the opportunity to have that, but it requires patience, endurance, long-suffering, zeal, and a true willingness to deny self for the cause of Christ.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

We are never to run someone else's race. Our race is set on whatever path God has chosen for us. It would be sad to see a runner who has trained to sprint all of a sudden try to take up long distance. Now in the spiritual, we should all be ready to go the distance, but each path is different. I will probably never have a need to build a giant ark and take animals 2 by 2, (mainly because I am not Noah, and I don't like animals.) I will never have a reason to relive the life of Joseph, the way Joseph did, but I will have my own hardships. I may never have the triumph and tragedy that Job experienced, but I can develop that faith. My race, my path, my story is chosen by the God. My responsibility is to train, get prepared, conditioned and seasoned for the run.

It is my responsibility to starve myself of the sin that feeds the flesh, and feast on God's word and my love and commitment to him. My diet should be appropriately regimented in order to maintain my strength and thrive during training. My attitude should mirror my expectation of victory. I don't train to quit, and I won't run to lose. My race involves me choosing Christ over the world and at the end of the race; I will take home the gold.

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