Losing a Race?

Posted by Conrad on 09.13.10 in Devotionals.

There’s a lot of ways to look at the major election news today, so I thought I’d come up with some spiritual lesson we could learn from this.  And no, the spiritual lesson isn’t that guys are better than girls.

Quick background for those of you who don’t know what today’s news is about…

A Democratic senator died in Massachusettes so yesterday there was a special election to fill in that seat.  One of the requirements to live in Massachusettes is that you have to be  a Democrat, so there was no chance for Coakley, the Democrat candidate, to lose.

In November the Coakley was up by over 30% points over the Republican Brown. That’s a huge gap.

You couldn’t have a bigger gap than that if the race was between Abraham Lincoln and a turkey sandwhich.

No matter how you want to interpret the results and where you want to cast the majority of the blame for Coakley’s loss, you have to at least concede that Coakley thought she had the race in the bag and did about as much campaigning as a rock… that’s buried under twenty feet of dirt…. on Mars.

In some ways it’s like The Parable of the Talents (a talent is measure of money in Biblical times).

In the parable, one of the people that were given talents by the master just buried the money instead of investing it.  When the master returned that unfaithful servant’s money was taken from him and given to one of the other dudes who were faithful.

The point of all this is that we cannot be complacent about our spiritual lives.  God gave us gifts, talents and resources for a reason.  Actually many reasons. These reasons can be callings, ministries or opportunities.

Like Coakley, who sat by inactive for most of the campaign until it was too late, we cannot sit by as opportunities pass us by.

We have to actively live out our spiritual lives or else these callings and opportunities will pass us by.  Leaving us in a state of ignorant disobedience and unfaithfulness.

RO 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.

Knowing this verse, ask yourself this…

“Am I actively working towards accomplishing God’s callings for me?”

Now take a look at this verse:

HEB 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. [2] Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

“What races does God have me running?

“Am I sitting around losing a bunch of races that I might not even know I’m in?”

“Am I complacently sitting by as opportunities pass me by?”

So let us run this “race marked out for us” by first figuring out the races God has specifically marked out for you (see this article for help on that), so that we can stop sitting around and run that race.

It’s hard to win a race you don’t even know you’re in.

HEB 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. [2] Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Take time to pray: Ask God for wisdom to figure out the races marked out for you and the love for Him to run those races.

Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Self-Control (Discipline).