Heavenly Father, When I was young, I had a friend that I played baseball with. He and I each had a favorite major league baseball team. He knew all the players and their statistics on his team and I knew those on my team. We would go to his backyard and our teams would play each other according to the rules we had made up for our two man games. It was fun pretending to be all of those different players and competing against my friend. I never did that with anyone else and when he moved to another state, I was very sad to see him go. Now that I’m grown, I don’t pretend like that any longer with other people, but in my heart I still enjoy spiritual contests. I have replaced my childhood friend with You and throughout every day, I enjoy spending time with You more than I did with my boyhood friend. The good news for me is that You will never move away. The events we participate in together are much more critical than the imaginary baseball games of my youth, but they are no less enjoyable. As a matter of fact, the pleasure I get from them brings me great joy. I let You make the rules for our episodes and You bring the players into my life as participants. The big difference is that the contestants in my fellowship with You are real people and the stakes are life and death. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 “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. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 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.” Philippians 3:13-14 “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.”
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 11:00:00 +0000
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