I spoke with a friend the other day who stated, with great determination in her voice, “I am going back to the gym.”

“That’s great.” I said

She continued, “I have decided I am going to run a marathon next September and if I want to do that I need to be in training, asap.”

She is not trying to run a marathon, she is in training to run a marathon and if you were with us on Sunday, or joined us online, we talked about the significant difference between trying and training. Check it out.

Honestly, how many of us can just get up off the couch after a long season of Netflix binging and run a marathon without conditioning and training our body? I would say not many, if any at all. It would be unthinkable not to mention dangerous! My friend knows that. So she has committed to a training regimen to prepare her to achieve her goal.

I am not a runner but I, probably like you, have goals that I would like to achieve. My friends’ words were spot on for all of us.

“….and, if I want to do that I need to be in training, asap.”

What is your “that”?

What is the goal you want to achieve?

Maybe there is a change you want to make, or a habit you want to break. What is your that? What is it that God is calling you to do, to change, to add or remove from your life?

Perhaps it is time to stop half-heartedly trying to achieve our goals, and go into deliberate, intentional training of our body, mind and heart to achieve the outcome we want… but perhaps more importantly… becoming the person God has created us to be.

And who are we called to be?

The Apostle Paul said to his young protege, Timothy. "Train yourself to be godly.” (1 Timothy 4: 7)

We are each called to that - to be godly. And guess what? It doesn’t happen by accident. We don’t just stumble into godly behaviours, attitudes and thoughts. We are to be in spiritual training to become who God created us to be. And as we honour God, we will be blessed in ways we can hardly imagine!

Join me Sunday, in-person or online, as we conclude our series entitled Our Sure Reward.