Such a way
1 Corinthians 9:24 “ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. “
Apostle Paul said, ‘run in such a way’ so as to win the race of life! An unruly and disorderly life has been the current way of life! People work during the nights and sleep during the day.
Ah, I can hear the devil guffaw at this! Our girls are raising slogans for ‘freedom of night!’ I wonder for what!!!!! The Bible says ‘ the terror of the night’ in Psalm 91:5 and also we are advised to ‘flee from evil’. If I write an article on this to the newspapers, I know it would be dumped and drowned but voices of aggression would be widely publicized. The aftermath of negativity and belligerence would be only chaos! Let us think of raising obedient, God-fearing, disciplined kids who would be a sweet-smelling rose in the society! Stop rushing and running for a CBSE school or International school, look for a good church and attend, in order to save you and your family! Are you listening? Choice is yours!
Illustration: Recently we celebrated Independence day at our Abide School run for the poor in Hyderabad. We had conducted drawing competitions for the students, prior to it they were given instructions regarding: drawing of border lines, checking of spelling mistakes of titles that they give, preparing before hand etc. Everyday in the assembly personally I conduct spell bee training for the students; however, during the competitions many students had made spelling mistakes, reckless presentations and were disobedient to instructions. I simply tore the papers that had blatant violation of instructions. What does this show? There was no zeal to win, they did not prepare IN SUCH A WAY to win, their goal was not to get the first prize in the drawing competition. Alas, all our efforts went down the drain, the students were more interested in playing and lacked hard work. That’s exactly how Christians are these days, anybody listening to me?? No difference at all.
Christians do not want to have accountability of their spiritual growth, they are more interested in vacations, social media than God and His ways.
During one of our AIC 3 days camp, titled ‘making soldiers for Christ’, we had to travel in the train to another city and conduct the meetings. We as a family had fasted for a week, prayed a lot and we had traveled to conduct the meetings; however, we did not have funds to pay the auditorium hall charges. It was very eerie! Along with my husband the moment we landed the city, we went into the closet and we started praying hard, God met our needs. On day one of the meeting when I climbed the platform and stood behind the pulpit, I began to weep – none knew the struggles that we had to face to run the show. The tears told God, “We made it God!” I had lot of health issues too, so with tears of gratitude I told God’ I made it God”….My son who was on the pulpit playing the keyboard, asked me after the meeting, ‘why did you cry like that?” He did not know the struggles though…The lady at the registration counter told me, ‘one particular man came rushing to the registration table and asked, ‘I was told that a sister is preaching with tears , is she preaching today too…’ Glory! Your tears are preparation for God’s glory!
Novak Djokovic 37 years old beat Carlos Alcaraz , 16 years younger than him at Paris Olympics.
In tears of joy, Djokovic after the triumph was seen in the stands, hugging his young daughter. With the Serbian flag in one hand, Djokovic gave a tight hug to his daughter and wept uncontrollably as he got surrounded by his family amid huge cheers. People jeered ‘why is he crying like that?’ Ah, they did not know his brutal training behind that win! After the win, Djokovic described his gold as probably his 'biggest sporting success'.
At Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic had looked old. As Carlos Alcaraz had mercilessly hammered him and reduced the match to a no-contest, fans had knowingly nodded to each other — his time was now up. The injuries were piling up, he hadn’t won a title in 2024, the younger players were getting better, and it was all adding up for the Serbian. Novak worked hard, trained hard in such a way to win the Olympics. His knee injury, his age, his previous failure at Wimbledon nothing could deter his spirit. His focus was the Olympic gold! He won it eventually in Paris Olympics, 2024.
You need to run the race IN SUCH A WAY to win! Pray, fast, meditate, stay in His presence and beat the enemy.
Apostle Paul goes on to say in verse 25:” don’t run aimlessly; do not fight like a boxer beating the air but strike a blow to your body and make it your slave.” Wow, this is awesome! Don’t take your position as being a ‘Christian’ for granted and live life the way you want…no…no…one day you might be thrown into hell. Be warned! You need to plan your growth in Christ, you need to have a goal to wake up in the morning and pray, read the Bible, attend fasting prayer, join midweek fellowship and intercede for the nation, join the volunteer work in Church…You cant live life recklessly and selfishly and think you can go to heaven. God would say “I don’t know you!’
