How will you run your race in 2018? - Greg Laurie -
Greg Laurie on key to making most of life, avoiding shallow, wasted years
The beginning of a new year is a great time to reflect on our lives, to evaluate how we're doing and where we're going. We want to make sure we're living our lives the way they ought to be lived.
You determine the evening of your life by the morning of your life. You determine the end of your life by the beginning of your life. If you're young, this is the time to think about these things. Don't say, "Well, I'll get around to it when I am really old, like 40." Start thinking about it now. Start charting the course your life will take.
Sadly, there are people who live silly, shallow, wasted lives. We want to make sure that we're living our lives well. In his book "Nearing Home," Billy Graham wrote: "All my life I was taught how to die as a Christian, but no one ever taught me how I ought to live in the years before I die. I wish they had because I am an old man now, and believe me, it's not easy. Whoever first said it was right: old age is not for sissies."
He goes on to say, "I often wonder if God, in His sovereignty, allows the eyesight of the aged to cast a dim view of the here and now so that we may focus our spiritual eyes on the ever after."
People think so much about how to prolong life, and that is OK. But really, the significance of a life is not its duration, but the donation - what we do with our lives.
Many times the apostle Paul used the analogy of running a race as a metaphor for the Christian life. He said that as runners in a race, we should run to win: "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it" (1 Corinthians 9:24 NKJV).
Who are we competing with? Am I competing with you and you with me? No. Our adversaries are the world, the flesh and the Devil. I hope you will root me on as I root you on. We all want to finish this race well, but we should run to win.
Paul also alluded to the idea that we can get off track as we run this race: "You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" (Galatians 5:7 NKJV). Sometimes we make poor choices and get off track in life. For example, we can make poor choices in friends. There are people who can drag us away from our commitment to Christ. They don't encourage us. At the very least, they slow us down, and at the worst they sidetrack us.
Think about your friends for a moment. Think about the people you hang out with. Think about your Facebook friends, the people you text the most, talk to the most and value the most. Are these people helping you or hurting you in your spiritual life? Is the relationship a wing, or is it a weight? Does it speed you on your way, or does it actually slow you down?
Certain equipment helps in different situations. For instance, if you're scuba diving, your equipment works beautifully in the water. The moment you're underwater and deflate your BC, you feel weightless. Your weight belt helps to keep you down so you don't float on the top. You have your regulator for breathing, and your fins help move you through the water. It's fantastic. But the moment you get out of the water and start walking to shore, all of that equipment is really heavy. I would hate to run a race wearing fins and scuba tanks. I wouldn't do very well.
In the same way, we can drag along a lot of excess baggage in the race of life. Be careful about those who can get you off track.
The apostle Paul also warned about looking back in the race. He said: "Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward - to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back" (Philippians 3:13-14 MSG).
It's hard to run forward when you're looking backward. Jesus said, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62 NKJV). When you find yourself looking back, you may also, in time, find yourself turning back. In the race of life, don't look back.
We also can be disqualified in the race. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:26-27: "So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified" (NLT).
It doesn't matter if we have run the race well for the first nine-tenths of it. We have to cross the finish line. We have to think about how we finish the race as well as how we start it.
When I was in track and field in high school, I always ran better when there was an audience. We have an audience in the race of life. Hebrews tells us: "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (12:1-2 NKJV).
We are runners in a race. How will you run your race in the coming year? Run to win.
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