Christian Living

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“For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29:11

“Who/What Determines a Winner?”
By Toi Allen

Today we will ponder the idea of what a winner looks like in the eye of the athlete. Even though some may or may not have natural athletic ability it is so important for an athlete to work hard and develop the gift of ability.
I know a woman who was answering a call to use her natural ability to pray for a young man who was struggling in his natural ability. He wanted to quit. In her testimony she shares how during her prayer time she could literally see the atmosphere shift.
Feeling as though she had reached her goal; within her prayer time she opened the door to leave and fell and broke her leg. She shared that after the fall she was in so much pain that she didn’t even feel the pain. She entered in and out of consciousness.
Her body did exactly what it needed to do; her body pushed through to the next state; a place of peace. Her body naturally pressed towards the mark and reached the goal of peace.
In Phillipians 3:14; The apostle Paul gives us a key and tells us to always press towards your mark and reach for your prize; a desired end result. The end result of this testimony is that no one quit. The lady and the young man both reached their expected end. A place of peace. They both were winners. No doubt that the thoughts the Lord knew towards them opened a door for them to reach their expected end.
Most athletes want to reach the goal of winning. Who determines what a winner looks like? To answer this question we should look at the goal. The goal determines the win. In a lot of circles the win is defined as the one who has the most. To define a win one should consider their thought process. We should know that the best performance someone is capable of is connected to how they think. “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” Proverbs 23:7
Good sportsmanship, good attitude and good performance are all recipes to learning good habits. This recipe when properly prepared makes a wonderful meal. Guess what? When all goals are focused on their part and function as a team member; then the win/win situation is achieved.
In other words if the goal is to reach 10 points in a game and you reach the 10 points but the overall game there weren’t enough points earned to say we won the game, but the 10 point goal was achieved. Would you say that this could be a recipe for a win/win situation? I would say yes. Why? Because everyone went home feeling as though they accomplished something. Who knows maybe the team we played on that day all had a small goal set for themselves individually. Instead of focusing on the big win; everyone focused on their own individual goal. Bringing all of the fulfilled goals together would constitute as all performing at their best and reaching their goals.
Know that the best performance someone is capable of is connected to their thought process. If we all pray and ask the Sovereign God to line our thoughts up with his thoughts then we all can achieve our goals of reaching towards the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and the win/win situation will be accomplished.

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