All of us want to be “winning Christians” and fulfill the purposes for which we have been saved. In this passage, we find there are five essentials for winning the race and one day receiving the reward that is promised. In Part 1, we saw the first two essentials. Now, we will look at the last three.

Direction (3:13c)

Forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what lies ahead.

The unsaved person is controlled by the past, but the Christian running the race looks toward the future. Imagine what would happen on the race course if the charioteers (or runners) started looking behind them! It is bad enough for a plowman to look back (Lk. 9:62), but for a charioteer to do so means a possible collision and serious injury.

We are accustomed to saying “past, present, future,” but we should view time as flowing…

We all have had a special friend that calls quite often.  If they don’t call we think something is wrong so we call them.  When we first met this person and they called they probably identified who they were.  After awhile it wasn’t necessary as we  immediately recognized their voice.  As time went on and we found out more and more about this special friend it became easier to talk to them.  We recognized when they were troubled or happy just by their voice tone.  We started feeling that this special friend has so much in common with us.  The conversations were fun as we started sharing our interests with each other.  We laughed at things we both understood and got to the point where we shared in each others sorrows too.

How would we feel if this special friend called us with the same words and the same dry…

With all the bad going on in the world, I was thinking about how much better it would be if we acted on most of our good intentions. Not only would the recipients of the good actions be better off, but I’m convinced that the doers of those that act on their good intentions would experience a greater sense of joy, hope and overall contentment.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Jesus did say that the southbound road is really wide and the northbound road is extremely narrow (Matthew 7:13), but I don’t remember Him ever mentioning what the pavement was made of. I think legalistic religion would tell us that the road to hell is paved with evil actions (sin). The opposite extreme would tell us that this dark road is paved with legalistic bricks that have impossible-to-keep rules imprinted on them. Like most things, I…