What makes an athlete great? Is it his/her desire to be great? A lot of people desire to be great athletes but very few achieve this status. Are they simply born with great physical ability, so that one day they just get up and win the gold medal in the 500-yard dash? I don't think so. They may start out okay at the beginning but pretty soon you will see them on the sideline, breathing heavy, bent over and begging for water. Why? Because they have not had the right kind of conditioning.
We've heard the saying 'the race is not given to the swift, neither the battle to the strong but to the one who endures until the end". (taken from Ecclesiastes 9:11 and Matthew 24:13) So how do we make it to the end - with the right kind of conditioning! This life we live is a marathon, not a sprint. We have to pace ourselves daily. We have to know when to pick up the pace and when to run slow and steady. We must rely on the Holy Spirit within us to guide us and direct us.
What is conditioning and why is it necessary? Conditioning is a process of behavior modification where a subject comes to associate a desired behavior with a previously unrelated stimulus. Some people believe that you can get in shape just by playing a sport. Not true. Just as in our Christian walk there are those that believe that things will be okay if I go to church on Sunday, read my Bible every now and then and pray sometimes. Now don't get me wrong, those things are necessary to your Christian walk. But the question that I want to ask you is are they going to get you across the finish line? If you only desire to get by with a passing grade then continue to do the bare minimum, but if you want to achieve greatness then you must put in the work. The bottom line in conditioning is stress, not mental stress but adaptive stress. As more pressure is applied your muscles become stronger and your build up the necessary stamina for endurance. You come to a hill, you know how to adjust your speed. You see when trials come in our life they are to make us better. They are teaching us to rely on God. These trials apply just the right amount of pressure at the right time to build up our strength so that the next time the devil throws something our way we are not easily swayed and ready to give in. We pray more. We read our Bible more.
Conditioning is a necessary part of your race. My challenge for you today is to work on your consistency so that you will be ready when the trial comes. There are times in this life when Satan will think he has you defeated. It's the end of the third quarter and you're down by fourteen points. Most teams give up. They go into the fourth quarter with a defeated attitude. But not you! You know that the secret to making it to the end and winning the race comes down to your conditioning and defense. When you know that you've been in the gym and exercised your faith, been a connoisseur of the Word and maintained a regular prayer life, you have no doubt that you are gonna be victorious! Your endurance is measured not by how you start the race but how you finish.
Most Gracious Heavenly Father,
I'm running this race called life and I need your help. I'm trying to get to the finish line but I've grown tired. Sometimes I just feel like giving up. I know I need to work on my conditioning, so I can achieve my goal. Thank you for the trials in my life. I know that they only come to make me strong. Help me to keep my eye on the prize. In Jesus' Wonderful Name. Amen.
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