Running for the Prize

Friday 2 December
READ: I Cor. 9: 24-27
MORE LESSON: Phil. 3: 13-14

If you are pursuing nothing in life, you will surely get nothing. In fact, if you woke up this morning and there is nothing you want to achieve, it is better you go back to sleep. There are broadly three categories of people in life; goalless people, goal setters and goal achievers. Age, gender or physical look notwithstanding, each man is classed in life by which of these categories he chooses to belong to. The Bible says, Where there is no vision, the people perish...: Prov 29:18. A goalless man is like someone without a purpose and goal in destiny. Such a man lives carelessly and might self-destruct. You must have a goal you are working towards in life.
It is not enough to have a goal, you must follow the discipline to achieve it. Paul the Apostle wrote to the Church in Corinth, Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain: 1 Cor 9:24. He was encouraging them not to be mere goal setters but goal achievers. He said, 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: verse 27. His goal was to preach to others and also make Heaven; and he disciplined himself to achieve it. Without disciplined pursuit, goals set will never be actualised.
This is why you have to avoid things that seek to distract you from the pursuit of your vision. Wherever you find yourself, in the church and in your secular place of enterprise, there is a vision and goal being pursued; you must do your part to contribute to the achievement of this corporate goal. Do not be distracted and do not be a distraction to any--work for your team to win. As you work for the actualisation of the goal of your church or workplace, it is necessary that you have a personal goal that you are working towards as well. People with personal visions have more to offer to corporate visions because they are self-motivated and don't need to be cajoled before they do things. You don't have to be the head of an organisation before you pursue the vision and contribute to the achievement of the goal. A wise man once said, If you are a street cleaner, be the best so that every man who passes that street will say that here lives a street cleaner that makes a difference. Your goal should be to do what you do so excellently that it will count no matter how little it is.

Prayer/Action
* Today, I choose to see the best in all I do, in Jesus’ name.
* As I run the race of life, I come against distraction, in Jesus’ name.
* I put myself under subjection for the sake of the prize.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, having brought me gracefully into December, every day of it shall be for joy and celebration, in the name of Jesus.