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Glory Seed Devotional’s, 2017: Anticipating and Experiencing Jehovah-Jireh...
The Faith Race, a Prize for every Runner...
Shalom!
“In a race everyone runs, but only one person gets first prize. So run your race to win. To win the contest you must deny yourselves many things that would keep you from doing your best. An athlete goes to all this trouble just to win a blue ribbon or a silver cup, but we do it for a heavenly reward that never disappears.” (1 Corinthians 9:24–25, The Living Bible)
When I first read today’s scripture yesterday during my Intimate Moments with the Word of God I read it wrong. What it reads is, “In a race everyone runs...” I read it, “In a race everyone wins...” But immediately I was corrected when I read, ”...but only one person gets first prize.” However, the macho-guy in me, the guy that dislikes to be wrong wouldn’t let it first go. “I didn’t misread it I told myself, “the Holy Spirit wanted me to in a different light.” (The Holy Spirit can and does use this I-don’t-want-to-be-wrong-guy from time-to-time.)
“What race can we be a winner without coming in first place,” I asked myself. At first I thought it might be the race we are all on to, the race to heaven. Those who truly love and believe in Jesus allowing the “fruit” of their lives to reflect their love and belief in Jesus will win the race for which there is no first prize, only one Prize. That sounded plausible to me, but I wasn’t quite satisified so the search for an answer went on. Then (by divine design) I stumbled over chapter 12 of Hebrews specifically verses 1 and 2.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith...” (Hebrews 12:1–2, NLT, emphasis mine)
It seems as if we’re in a faith race. And as long as we follow the course set before us by God we become a winner not of a first prize but THE Prize, one we will all win, Jesus! The faith race is one of the strangest races we’ll ever be in, strange because we are racing against ourselves and our unbelief. Strange because the course set before me is nothing like the one set before you. Strange because even our courses run parallel for awhile we run together not in competition but in support and encouragement of each other.
To each of you who read Glory Seeds thank you for running your faith race along side mine let us encourage each other to run our best race keeping our eyes on the Prize, Jesus!
“God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son will bless us with great mercy and much peace, and with truth and love.”**
Grace and PEACE,
Gary
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“Scripture quotations are taken from The Living Bible, Copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.”
“Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.”
**2 John 3, The Living Bible