One reason that more people do not enter the Olympics, or sports in general, is because of the hard work involved. Besides possible time constraints, they know it requires a determined mindset that is not going to quit.

When you consider the training schedule of the people famous in their sport, and how many hours they practice a day, it is no wonder they got good at it. If Christians did the same – read their Bible every day, pray, witness, and faithfully attend and be an active part of their church, it would make a huge difference in their life and in others around them.

Many people would rather just take it easy – including Christians. The Lord Jesus never gave disciples that option. His words quickly separated the serious disciples from those who want to play being a Christian. In Mark 8:34, He said: “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

In the text verse for today, Paul said that he took the same attitude toward living for God that the Olympian hopeful takes – he disciplines his body to keep going and do what needs to be done – working harder than his competitor. Sports individuals who do not practice regularly will soon be exposed because they cannot do what others who regularly practice can do. As Paul put it, they become a “castaway!” No longer qualified for a prize by their own choice!

Christian, is your life worthy of Christ’s praise when we stand before Him and all is revealed? Of course, none of us are perfect – but some are seeking hard to please God with their life and witness. You can be sure that our Lord takes notice. Paul is one of them whose example we can follow with God’s help – and we know he received a prize. Don’t quit now – He is coming soon!

=======

Earlier in this three-part series:

Giving Our All in the Time Left in the Race (Pt. 1)

Giving Our All in the Time Left in the Race (Pt. 2)

Every now and then I will hear a professing Christian say that believers should not follow men. Although we certainly ought to be cautious about how others influence us, the idea is not Biblical.

It certainly is true that we should be following Christ, but we also must keep in mind Who it is that gave us the Bible – and inspired every word. God gave it and it is without error.

As humans, we may tend to think we could never be fully like Jesus as He walked on Earth. It is true, but it could become an excuse for us not to try as hard as we should. Some do not even try. Still, we are commanded to “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). It is the will of God.

While I do not think that anyone of us can be perfect this side of Heaven, yet we are wrong to use it as an excuse not to seek to please God in all we do and think. I also believe that most people today never really know what the Holy Spirit is capable of in a human life.

To cover this excuse, God gave us a human example – Paul. Although he was not perfect – and he admits it – yet the Holy Spirit has told us that he is an example for us. In fact, the phrase “Be ye followers of me,” is repeated twice – also occurring in I Corinthians 11:1: “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”

When studying Paul’s life more carefully, you will find that his life would be a challenge to anyone of us to follow Christ more closely. Not many people today even come close. God gave us through him a view into what God wants us to be – along with Christ’s perfect example.

Instead of merely talking about Christ and gladly telling others how long we have been saved, may God help each believer to put into practice more and more of what we see in Paul’s life, and in Christ’s glorious life. If you say you follow no one – is your life really like that of our Savior? Remember also that a disciple is a follower.

Paul knew trouble. He was intimately acquainted with it. It almost seems he went from one trouble to another, ye he could talk about being comforted.

In the text verse for today, Paul makes it clear that “comfort” does not mean peace without trouble, although it can. He was comforted in his tribulation. We could not know the depths of God’s comfort apart from the trials. In fact, they make His comfort seem much sweeter and we appreciate it more.

Our God is the “God of all comfort.” I believe that it means that His comfort is more than suitable to comfort us in any situation. We can think of the “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7) when we think about God’s comfort. We will not need more than that in trying times.

Many believers today do not experience God’s comfort because they are not willing to walk close to God. Doing so requires faithfulness on our part no matter what comes our way.

Paul’s testimony reveals that comfort and tribulations often go together. Serving God makes us a target for the Wicked One, but God’s grace is always sufficient when our eyes are on our Lord. God also never permits the temptation to be greater than we can bear with His help.

Notice also that these verses reveal that God has more than one purpose in comforting us. The verse proclaims that God “comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble.” It means that God wants to comfort you also because He wants you to show your brothers and sisters in Christ that His comfort is sufficient to keep you serving Him.

Christian, are you experiencing His comfort now? Are you walking close enough to Him so that He can prove His comfort is more than sufficient?

In this verse, which follows the statement that Paul continues in the ministry God gave him and faints not, we see four things about how he was faithful to that ministry.

1. The Renouncing

Paul talks further about how he – and others with ministries from God – can rightly handle the ministry they were given. The first thing is to rid yourself of those things that are dishonest: business dealings, usage of time at work – are you doing your best, are you faithful to your spouse and children, etc.?

2. The Walk

It is also essential that our walk be right before God and man. Sometimes there may be guilt in trying to make yourself to appear to be something you are not when around other people. If you act one way at church and another way at home – it is crafty – less than honest and less than what Christs asks of us as His children.

3. The Word

It is easy to find pieces of Scripture that may seem to justify a particular action or type of thinking. But when the whole of Scripture is considered on a single topic – misinterpretation is impossible if you want the truth. People often look for “loopholes” in the Bible to justify some sin – this is “handling the word of God deceitfully.” Unfortunately for them – God will never justify any sin.

4. The Manifestation

Paul says that he works to live in such a way that Christ’s life in him is visible to all he comes in contact with. He appeals to different people in different ways, but does not compromise truth, so that he can be a consistent witness to those he meets.

In the verses before this one, Paul reminds the Corinthians that they are the result of his ministry. Through his teaching and preaching, this church had been started and was established. He was the human element behind its establishment.

Even though he makes this claim, he gives all glory to God. He knew he was merely the instrument that God used to bring about this result. He declared that he was not able to do this on his own: “not that we are sufficient of ourselves.”

For those who teach and preach God’s Word, this principle always needs to be remembered. We can do nothing without Him! The reason for Paul’s success was because he worked but trusted God for the result!

God wants to use you – but He must get the glory. Sometimes, the harvest is not ready yet and takes time for the seed to grow. The Corinthian church undoubtedly gave Paul some sleepless nights – but Paul kept on praying and communicating with them. Slowly, good fruit became evident in this church.

Our ability to keep on serving God – even when things do not look good – is because “our sufficiency is of God.” Remember also that the arm of flesh will fail you. Our ability to keep on going for God or to develop fruit comes from His power and grace – not our personality or talents.

When you depend on Him for the power and for the results – you can see Him do things you never could.

Paul loved the church at Philippi and prayed often for them. Notice that in this verse he calls them “beloved” twice. As the book of Philippians reveals, he greatly enjoyed his time spent with the people that made up this church.

The church was doing many things right and this brought joy to Paul – even though he was writing this letter from prison. He knew very well the temptations that Christians might face and that they could turn hearts away from the Lord. Although they were doing well at the time, Paul exhorts them to keep on doing well – “stand fast in the Lord.”

Every believer today needs to “stand fast in the Lord.” Over time, it is easy to begin to grow lax in the things of God. Trials and temptations come into every believer’s life. None are exempt. This can make it easy to slow down in service for God or even quit altogether – as many have done when Covid hit our churches (or threatened to).

The only way you can determine whether you have slowed down and ceased to “stand fast in the Lord” is to consider your past Christian service. Has there ever been a time when you were more active for Christ? Have you lost your “first love?” Can you honestly say that you are doing your best for Christ?

The fact that God tells believer to “stand fast” means that He is both ready and prepared to enable you to “stand fast.” There is nothing that can come your way that He cannot help you with and enable you to have victory.

If so, perhaps now would be a good day to surrender afresh to do the Father’s will and seek to bring glory to Him. He is able to sustain and direct you in service for Him.

Sometimes it can be difficult to know how to pray for other believers. Yes, we pray for their needs and general health and protection, but there is so much more that they have need of – spiritual needs.

In the above verses, Paul the apostle mentions that when he prays for the Philippian Christians, that he makes four specific prayer requests for them. They are:

1. “that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment”

Paul prayed that their love for Christ and for fellow believers would continue to grow. He prayed that it would grow more through Bible knowledge and personal (relationship) knowledge of Christ, and that their love would be applied to their discernment (“judgment”).

2. “That ye may approve things that are excellent”

The approving that Paul wants them to develop is the result of the application of proper discernment. Once you determine what the best things are to do and act upon from Scripture, you choose to focus on the best things and leave off the spiritually unprofitable things.

3. “that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ”

The word “sincere” means genuine – the real thing. Choose to be a real Christian – the Bible kind – the New Testament kind – not the wishy-washy types so often found today. The phrase “without offense” means that we do not offend Christ with compromising lifestyles, actions, or habits. He will one day judge us – so let us please Him in all we do.

4. “Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”

God wants every believer to be like His Son – Jesus Christ. Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit while on earth – and with God’s help – we should be also. All that Christ did, was done in righteousness and for God’s glory – not His own.

As you can see, praying these kinds of things for our fellow believers and pastors and missionaries will add a new dimension to your praying. Will you begin to add these things to your prayers as you bring those you pray for before God?

Christian growth is much more than meeting a mere checklist of things that you do not do. As the passage above shows, many religious people in a wide range of religions are outwardly moral – but morality and religion do not make someone pleasing to God.

The Apostle Paul takes this note one step further and reveals that true spiritual growth is not to be based on what you can do or know. He said in Galatians 3:3 that: “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” Remember that these were believers. They were saved by faith – but they mistakenly came to believe that spiritual growth was perfected by things that the flesh can accomplish.

The Pharisee in Jesus’ parable above thought he had arrived spiritually and that God would accept Him. He was self-made and had no need. On the other hand, the publican (a hated tax collector that worked for the Roman government) had no “credits” but only had a need – which God graciously met.

Similarly, no matter how much Christian growth you have experienced since you became a believer, you will always have need to depend on the Holy Spirit to work through you. It will always remain true what Jesus told the disciples: “without me ye can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5).

Like Paul, we must be careful to say: “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended” (Php. 3:13), or reached perfection. The minute that pride enters the picture – that is the very moment that God ceases to use you or me. Again, like Paul, we must “count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Php. 3:8).

In the Bible, God’s greatest servants were nobodies! Growing spiritually means to let Him use you in all things and at all times so that His will is accomplished through you so that He can get all the glory! We are just vessels for Him to fill and use as He desires. He will give you all the strength you need to serve Him!