Running with endurance

Why Christians need to train just as hard as Olympians

Many people the world around have stopped to watch the Sochi Winter Olympic games.

Who wouldn’t love watching men and women striving to do their best, pushing themselves and even testing the very limits of gravity as they fly across the ice, skate down the slopes, jump to daziling heights and ski at amazing speeds? These athletes have trained for months, for years, some for their whole lives for these Olympic Games.

But it is not only Olympians who are called to train hard; Christians are called to put just as much work in too.

What are we training for?

Christians aren’t called to train for an Olympic event, or for a race in which we might win a gold medal. Rather we are called to train in godliness (1 Timothy 4:7) and to run the Christian race that has been set out before us. Check out Hebrews 12:1-2:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

This is a race that only finishes when we stand before our Lord Jesus on that final day.

Are you running with endurance?

The Christian life is not an easy one, that is why Paul refers to it as a race. We struggle with many things - our own sin, the brokenness of the world around us and also our enemy the devil. And we are told to fight against all these things. And God is good, we do not fight alone, He has given us His Holy Spirit to enable us to run the race to the end:

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever. (John 14:15-16)

So as you watch the Olympians on the television who are competing in Sochi and you think about all the training they have had to put in to get there, remember – the Christian life is also a race in which we must persevere. So be diligent in your training, and remember the basics:

God has saved you and he loves you, therefore, love others.

Remember to read your Bible so you can grow in knowledge and understanding.

Pray to your Heavenly Father for help.

Remember that Jesus has died to save you from sin, so don’t gratify the sinful nature.

Keep perservering and look to the finish line, eternity in heaven!