ARISE! [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you--rise to a new life] Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you! For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness [all] peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon you [O Jerusalem], and His glory shall be seen on you. (Isaiah 60:1-2)
The Christian life has often been referred to or described as a race. Paul said in Hebrews 12:1 …”let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us”. I am sure most of us, if we had to compete in say a 100m sprint race, would certainly run to win.
To win the race you have to employ a number of strategies e.g. running – long and short distances to develop speed and stamina, eating the right foods, getting sufficient rest, weight training to build up the muscles, etc. You even have to train your mind to have a winning mentality. As the saying goes – most battles and races are often lost or won in the first instance in the mind. You have to know you can and believe you can win. You have to fight against doubt, fear and a whole host of negative thoughts when preparing yourself to be a winner. Then you might turn your attention to the other runners/competitors, by comparing yourself to them - a natural thing to do but could be futile because when that race starts you are on your own in your lane, running your own race. You cannot be concerned with what your competitor in the next lane is doing – you have to stay focused on your race confident that you have done everything required for a successful outcome – running with sheer determination with your eyes on the prize – the finishing line – the first position!
Are you in it to win it? (Whatever ‘it’ may be). Do you have a dream or something you are passionate about that you have wanted to pursue but were too afraid to enter the race and step on to the track, for fear of losing? Go for it! But before you do make sure you have done all your preparations that will put you on the track to success. Don’t be afraid of failure. Because you have committed it to God, be of good courage…for the Lord your God is with you. When embarking on something new it can be frightening or daunting because it is stepping into the unknown but if you have done all that you need to do to put YOU in the best possible position to achieve (to win) then with your faith in God and in yourself, ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, BANG, Go for it! “Throw off…”, in the words of Apostle Paul, ”… every unnecessary weight (encumbrance) [burden, load, hindrance, nuisance, impediment, mass, heaviness]“ and set yourself up to be a winner!
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