Give It Your All – People Are Watching
We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.
Proverbs 16:9
Give It Your All – People Are Watching
If you’re an athlete or coach it should be in your nature to compete on the field of competition. If you don’t want to compete then something is wrong and you probably need to get out of the game you love.
The apostle Paul gives us an athletic picture and illustration. Look at what he says: “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.”
Paul is reminding us to maintain “self-control” in our daily walk with the Lord. We should be guarding our witness and examining our own personal behavior closely. We need to be sensitive to our conscience when it condemns us for wrong doing.
Then Paul tells us how to do that. Listen to what he says: “But I discipline my body and make it my slave.”
Paul reminds us to make discipline an utmost priority and that we need to discipline our bodies in such a way that we make it “our slave.” We place a guard over what we see. What we do. What we say. Where we go.
It is a daily grind, a fight, a competition if you will to beat your fleshly mortal body into submission to the obedience of Christ, pleasing only an audience of One. And why do we do this? So that we don’t become “disqualified” by losing our influence, our impact on others, and forfeit leaving a spiritual legacy in life that will long out live us when we are gone. What a tragedy that would be.
Compete! Be Disciplined! Don’t give in! Fight! Our witness, influence, impact and legacy are at stake and demands that we do.
Love God, Love People, Live Sent!
Be Worth Being,
Kevin
Kevin Burrell has worked in professional baseball as both a player and MLB scout for the past 43 years, and currently serves as an area scouting supervisor. Kevin was drafted in the 1st round of the 1981 free agent amateur draft (25th selection overall), and played ten years of professional baseball with four different organizations. He and his wife, Valerie, live in Sharpsburg, Ga.