Seize the Moment – Day 195
The Discipline of an Athlete!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, September 28.
Christians are called to live with the discipline of an athlete.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
At West Point, I was a Division 1 All-American and First-Team Academic All-American in Track & Field, and then as a post-graduate I was a national team member and Olympic Team Trials finalist, I have experienced the life of an athlete at the highest amateur level.
It is not the exciting life that one would think, but a life of daily disciplines and true sacrifice. Did I love it? Honestly…Yes & No! Definitely not all the time! I had to train my whole life and exercise self-control in all things to accomplish the one goal of attaining the prize. Every part of my life was regulated by the goal—years of my life were submitted to a higher goal—including sleep habits, eating, travel, friendships, recreation, calendar planning, time usage, and a myriad of other personal details.
The same is true in the Christian life! And more so, because in the Christian life we are submitting our lives to an even greater calling than a personal goal.
In the Christian life, we are free in Christ, but we must in all things bring that freedom into submission so that our lives proclaim the good news that set us free in the first place!
Seize the moment and live in such a way that demonstrates the love that saves and the grace that transformed you from death to life…