Part 1: Off To The Races

Upon my baptism (most wonderful day of my life!) my pastor gave me a baptismal verse. It was tradition at Wellsville Baptist Church that the pastor would pick a passage specifically to be blessing or prayer for the one being baptized. At the time I had no idea what my special verse meant. I knew very little about the Bible and by the grace and mercy of Adonai my eyes were veiled to my future walk with Christ (more on the veiling of the future to come). My verse:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." 1 Corinthians 9:24

The verses surrounding this one give a little more clarity. Every person in this world is running the race; in one way or another each one is training so that they may win a prize or accomplish something great. As followers of Christ Jesus our purpose for running the race is for the sake of the gospel; that Christ be known.

I know many of you have been watching the Olympic games for the past few weeks (I would have liked to!), have you thought about the strict training those athletes undergo? Have you thought about why the Olympics only come around every 4 years? Their strength, agility, and pure talent is extremely admirable and often inspiring, but what is their purpose? Their metals will rust, trophies with break and grow dusty, and their flowers will wilt and die. As soon as they get home from Vancouver they will begin training again to reclaim their fame and add to their collection of meaningless things.

Verse 25 says, "...They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever."

We are all in a race, running for a purpose, our prize is Christ's name known and glorified around the world. But how are we training in order to win this race? In the next two verses Paul writes, "Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." 1 Corinthians 9:26-27.

I believe Paul's words are meant as a warning to the saints in Corinth against hypocrisy, and as instruction toward self-discipline and integrity.

A personal example of how I have been thinking about this comes from this past weekend. I was blessed with the opportunity to lead worship at a women's conference, there were 800+ women present!!! Side note: There are few more beautiful experiences then raising my voice to praise LORD Yahweh simultaneously with 800+ other women! Anyway, God used this opportunity to minister to my heart. As I was singing all of these wonderful theologically rich lyrics, I could not help but feel the anointing of the Holy Spirit in my voice. The thought came to me, as it has before, "How can I sing these promises and truths to these women, and in essence preach the gospel to them in song, without allowing it to infiltrate my own heart and mind?" The answer came to me quickly, "I can't!" I must have a heart of integrity and self-discipline in order to run the race and win the eternal prize!