run to get the prize!

• The Olympic Games kicks off in Beijing, China this week. It’s going to be full of athletes and experts in their field aiming to steal Gold for their country. It’s going to be an amazing event as the world’s media turns its attention to an event held only once every four years.
  
  
• For each person competing, it will be the culmination of years of training; cold morning runs in winter, strict diets, routine sleep patterns and many huge relational and financial sacrifices made in order to be at the peak of their game. It’s not easy getting ready for the Olympics.
  
  
• I’m thinking beyond Hope ’08 now. The rest of this year is vitally important, and we must continue the good work of sharing Jesus’ message of Hope in word and deed now, TODAY. Yet, the future beckons...2009, 2010, 2011 and the rest of our lives.
  
  
• The whole of our Christian walk is geared towards Jesus’ instructions to take the Good News to everyone. It’s also about spiritual training for our future citizenship in heaven. You see one day, we’ll live in God’s kingdom. It won’t be an Olympic Village where people walk around tense and nervous, anxious to compete and win their race. Far from it! It will be a place where one day we rest from our earthly work and rule with Christ as co-heirs of His Father’s kingdom, having suffered with Him on earth, and then share with Him in heaven’s glory. [see Romans 8: 16-18]
  
  
• So, today, now, in 2008, treat earth as your Olympic Village. You’ve been selected to take part in the race [in other words, you're saved by Jesus], but you need to focus, as Paul says above, on running the race of your earthly life. This means living out your life according to God’s rules and running with your eyes fixed solely on the prize: living in the future Kingdom with Jesus.