1 Corinthians 9:24, “Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!”
Over the past several weekends, I’ve had the pleasure of watching the young women my wife coaches in hockey compete. I am a huge sports fan and have played sports my entire life. I’ve also coached several youth sports along the way. It’s awesome to see young people compete and try to perform their best to get a victory. And even if the victory doesn’t come, the effort given to perform at your best helps you to grow.
God calls each of you to be the best you can be and to follow the plan He has for you. To reach your goals along this path you have to be ready to put in the work to be your best. When challenged you have to stand strong and show the strength God has placed inside of you. You should not shy away from the competition, use it to become better.
I remember when I started out playing basketball many, many years ago in the YMCA. I was a pretty good player and played on some pretty good teams. We were good in our area but when we went outside of our area and played other teams the level of competition stepped up. At that point we had two choices, step up to the level of competition and increase our play or succumb to the increased pressure. I will tell you sometimes we stepped up our game and competed and sometimes we didn’t. The times we did step up to the challenge, our confidence in our own abilities increased. We became better.
It’s that same way in your lives every day whether you are talking about work or play. You will face competition in some form or fashion. The question is how are you going to react to it. Becoming all God has called you to be means you should meet these challenges head on. Use them as a chance to grow the strength and confidence God has placed inside of you.
Healthy competition is good for us as we go through life. It will help us become more refined in our purpose. We will either shy away from the competition or face it and become a better version of ourselves. The competition is there not for us to focus on the other person but for us to focus on improving ourselves. Galatians 6:4 (NLT) says it perfectly, “Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.”
Truth In Love! ~ Chuck