In my last post, I wrote about how God created us to be awesome and live an awesome life. However, just because that is how we are created, that doesn’t mean that is how we are living. If you haven’t read it, I’d encourage you to check it out because this post will build upon that idea. If God has created us to live this awesome life, how exactly do we accomplish that?
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9, talks about how he did everything he could to spread the gospel. He knew God had called him to preach to the Gentiles and he was going to do everything he could to fulfill what God had created him for. In verses 26-27 Paul says, “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.”
The first step to living the awesome life God has created us for is having purpose in every step. Paul compares it to shadowboxing. Shadowboing is literally boxing the air. You don’t have an opponent. You don’t even have a trainer helping. If you’ve never shadowboxed before, it can feel pretty foolish. You are just making up stuff as you go. You throw a punch when you feel like it and dodge imaginary punches from an imaginary opponent. There is no purpose in your steps. Paul says we can’t live like that. There must be purpose in our steps. We can’t just guess and make them up. Rather they must be in line with the vision that God has given us.
The next thing Paul tells us is that he trains and disciplines his body. He compares it to how an athlete trains. We all know the things we need to do to train our body spiritually, but are we doing them? I know I’m not always the greatest. Paul says he trains his body to do what it should. In order to live the awesome life that God has for us we have to train our body. We have to train it to prepare it for where God is going to take us. Without the training, we will just fall flat on our faces.
“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”
1 Peter 2:9
The reason it is important for us to live the awesome life God has for us is because it shows others the goodness of God. Living the awesome life will bring glory to God. There was a time in my life where I hadn’t published a new blog post in almost 2 months. I started to think it wasn’t that big of a deal. I don’t have a huge following so did it even matter. The truth was it did matter because I was robbing God of the chance to be glorified. It wasn’t because my blog could have went viral and I could be doing something more with it now (although I wouldn’t mind that). Even though I don’t have a big following, I have often been told about how God spoke to people though my posts. By not doing the awesome things that God created me for, I am robbing Him of the glory that will come through it.
As I said in my last post, God created us to be awesome. Let’s live with purpose and training so that we can be all that God created us to be. In doing so, He will be glorified.
until next time…