Are you Spiritual Fit?

All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

1 Corinthianss 9:25-27 (New Living Translation)

 

Almost the entire world was in a frenzy during the IAAF World Championships held recently. One of the most anticipated events was the 100m finals where one of the crowd favourites won by just the width of his vest (0.01s). A more popular sporting-event of a similar sort are the Olympic Games. Athletes from across the world compete against one another in a bid to prove who is more capable with his/her particular skills. To demonstrate their capability, the athletes have to undergo a strict and tailored regime which includes a strict diet pattern, some rigorous

workout routines on certain fixed times of the day be it summer or winter and practicing abstinence from worldly delicacies that excite, stimulate and ultimately feeble.
To make a mark in such events, an athlete has to ponder over and consider the prerequisite preparations and their consequences, the physical injuries and an obligation to follow mouthfuls of dust whilst training. This amount of hard-work will lead to his/her victory and earn him a medal i.e. a crown for his effort and hard work.
But such awards are temporary and they begin to wither as time flies. We have been given an opportunity to contend for an everlasting crown, the heavenly inheritance.

Once the ‘go’ sign is given to the athletes in a race, they all run as fast as they can but only one of them wins the prize no matter how strenuously all of them exert themselves. These rules are set by our human tendency and imagination. However, taking it on a Christian prospect, the race is tad different. In a Christian perspective, if everyone ran by following the rules (obey the Word), each one of them would receive the prize i.e. the crown of immortality. Here the apostle Paul refers to himself saying that he exerts himself to the Lord so that he may 

not fail of securing the crown. 
Next reference is the art of fighting with the fists/boxing. Whilst

practising, athletes would try and throw their arms and legs in different directions to symbolize the act of offence and defence. This is referred as fighting with a shadow or shadowboxing. The apostle Paul wasn’t shadowboxing i.e. he didn’t preach aimlessly, his aim was to overcome the enemy (sin and the unrighteous fleshly desires) and bring everything under God’s captivity. His efforts didn’t go in vain. Christians these days can be generally observed shadowboxing. Their efforts are unplanned and aimless, getting wasted away inefficient and scattered. They discover a tiny anomaly in some religion which if left alone would die in itself, fix all their attention on that tiny speck and devote their entire life opposing the same. Here they have missed their sole broader goal (to reach the finish line and win a prize).

The apostle Paul regards his body as an enemy i.e. his contender. Since it is prone to physical desires which are probably undeniable, he has to defeat his contender (physical body) by taking control of these desires and he can do this by mortifying it by self-denial, abstinence and severe labour. He worked on every possible effort to be saved. He did not mean to be lost, but he meant to be saved. He felt that there was danger of being deceived and lost; and he meant by some means to have evidence of piety that would abide the trial of the Day of Judgment.
Here we note that we should make an effort to be saved. If people


made such exertions to obtain a corruptible crown, how much greater effort should we make to obtain the one that’s everlasting! The fact that a man has preached to many is not an evidence that he will be saved. Paul had preached to thousands, and yet he felt that after all this there was a possibility that be might be lost. Ministers, like others, are in danger of losing their souls. If Paul felt this danger, who is there among the ministers of the cross who should not feel it?

Message for the week:
The fact that you have a Christian background or you have Christian friends doesn’t mean that you are saved. To inherit the eternal crown of salvation, you need to put effort into your lives and live it in such a way i.e. if you’re a common man, workout on your spiritual strength and follow righteous values that are pleasing to God and if you’re a pastor, practice what you preach.

Recite this short prayer with me, “Lord, You are our ideal person- sinless, blameless and faultless. You gave your life just for the forgiveness of our sins. I invite You to come into my heart and strengthen me spiritually. Help me train hard to win the race and receive the glorious crown of immortality that you have kept for me. In the name of Christ my Lord and Saviour I ask this small prayer.”
Amen