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. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NIV)
The pig is all in when he hands you the bacon, the hen…well not so much. She can always lay more eggs. Are we more like the hen than the pig in our commitment to the Lord Jesus? Are we sold out or are we simply giving a mental assent in our walks with Christ? It matters. Our Lord never meant for His followers to remain the same. We are to be growing up into His image. Scripture tells us that Jesus was to be the firstborn among many brothers. Indeed, Paul writes in Galatians 2:20 (NIV): I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Believers are to walk as Jesus walked – this is both for our good and for His glory – one never surpassing the other. John tells us in 1 John 2:6 (NIV): “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” The Lord desires our wholehearted devotion and willing minds in our commitment to Him. He longs for us to be courageous and strong regarding this and doing everything in love because He knows it is for our best as well as for the good of others. Saint Teresa of Avila writes: “Christ has no body on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which He looks compassionately on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which He blesses all the world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Together we all make up the body of Christ. No one person can do it all but if all of us do our parts, the body works well. We were all created to be a part of His body. Every.single.one.of.us. And the body suffers when we do not do our parts. We will find our hearts being drawn to what He has placed in them to do - His work feeling more like joy than labor. It is the Lord that assigns our task and it is taking hold of the life that is truly life. All else falls short of this great abundance. Tony Evans writes: “You have not really lived until you have found your God given ministry. To live without a sense of divine appointment is to simply exist, to be detached from an eternal perspective and, therefore simply marking time.”
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV)