“Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but [only] one receives the prize? So run [your race] that you may lay hold [of the prize] and make it yours?” (I Cor. 9:24).
To be prepared for a race, such as one in the Olympics, one must have an extensive period of exercise, discipline and sufficient practice. The athletes in the Olympics train for years, usually from a young age, so as to be prepared physically and mentally for the contest. A large part of their training is the training of their minds (attitudes, focus, determination and the like). There must be 100% focus on the goal and the processes to achieve it.
The Apostle Paul admonishes us to run the race so that we win. As believers there is great discipline needed in our daily lives to in order to run this race successfully. First, we are required to present our bodies a living sacrifice. The word “bodies” can be traced back to the Hebrew word “nephesh.” Nephesh, the word for soul, means your whole being, mind, body, emotions and all of your inner parts–all of you.
“Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things. They do it to win a wreath that will soon wither, but we [do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness] that cannot wither” (I Cor. 9:25). “Therefore, I do not run uncertainly (without definite aim). I do not box like one beating the air and striking without an adversary” (I Cor. 9:26).
We are not to run in uncertainty. These words are not just God’s suggestion, but His Words of life that we must take seriously, Words we must live by.
We are admonished to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. “Transformed” comes from the word metamorphoo, which is the English word “metamorphosis.” This process is demonstrated in the life of a larva becoming a butterfly. Part of the process of a larva becoming a butterfly is that the larva must eat leaves. Eating the leaves fuels the process of transformation. Jeremiah teaches us that in the Hebrew culture, the scrolls were called leaves. As it eats the leaves, the caterpillar can grow 100 times its original size. We also must eat the leaves (God’s Word) to be transformed and grow in the way we think, so as to be empowered to discern and carry out the will of God. We must spiritually eat our way into our destiny by reading, knowing, meditating on and doing the Word of God.
“But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit]” (I Cor. 9:27).
Paul is saying that we must make our physical bodies slaves and bring them under subjection with discipline for fear that we may become unfit and rejected, and thus disqualified from receiving the prize.
EVERYTHING we eat is important.
Love,
Karen J
All scripture taken from the AMPC
