DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR TODAY, MARCH 13, 2013
SPIRITUAL RUNNERS
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. I Corinthians 9:24-27
All runners spend a great deal of time training. They condition their bodies so that they can obtain mastery. In I Corinthians 9:24 we are told that spiritual runners are to run in a manner that will obtain the spiritual prize (crown). This means that we must be very serious about the course which God has set before us. What course, you may ask? If you must ask this question, perhaps you are at the place in your race where you must be patient: your course is not yet set before you. Spiritual runners, unlike the natural, run with patience because the course, the path, the plan and purpose is revealed over time, often gradually. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God"(Hebrews 12:1,2).
Jesus was twelve years of age when the Scriptures records his discerning of the course God had set before Him. And once Jesus saw the course God had set before Him he was steadfast and "straightway," moving with urgency and passion toward the calling.
Today, let us look to Jesus and run to obtain!
