There is a certain percentage of the world that is highly competitive, and even if you do not like to compete, chances are that you know more then a few people that do enjoy a chance to compete. Not so long ago we competed over sports, test scores and board-games. The same is true for the current generation except you can add a bit more of a competitive spirit in clothing and accessories as well as video gaming, and even reality T.V.
Is this all vanity or harmless sport? Are there some new things to be aware of that God would have us compete about?
Until recently I thought that competition had nothing to do with God. But, I met someone that challenged my thoughts on that and opened me up to a new perspective. I hope to share that perspective with you in this article. (read on.)
Matthew 11:11
I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Luke 9:48
Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all ; he is the greatest."
Ephesians 3:8
Although I am less than the least of all God's people, ...
Luke 13:30
Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last."
Mark 9:35
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
All of these things point to a competition that the world will never understand. But those that are born of the Spirit have an apprehension of a spiritual competition. Not a competing to take, and win, and achieve ... but a unique competition to let go, and lose, and be last ... so that others may go before us.
We compete and are driven to make sure to that others are honored before us. We hold crowns over the heads of our brothers and sisters even if they have not yet grown into them. We are like a cowboy that lets a lady sit on the horse, while we lead the horse below in the dust. We strain to lay hold of the mysteries of the Lord, so that we can share them with newly born Christians, in the hope that even as we now teach them ... they may surpass us and we may one-day sit at their feet and be fed from their surpassing understanding of the faith.
We compete to have all love and all faith, not to win but so that others will win.
We get below, and underneath and hoist people up to the Lord, so that when every last willing brother and sister is firmly in His grip, they may reach down and pull us up at the very last. We want only to be last.
We compete only to lose.
Why? It suits us .. it puts a spring in our step and a lift in our countenance that competing to win cannot match.
1 Corinthians 1:27-29
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
I'm not really saying that competition to win is always evil. If you are His sheep, you know when you have gone too far in that sort of thing. Sheep hear the Shepherd's voice and do not need me to tell them when they have sinned, because they are already vexed by it. And where one Sheep may have a problem with it, another may not. Just listen to the Lord Jesus, and what He is whispering in your heart about the games that people play.
I'm just encouraging you in a spiritual competition that the world may never appreciate, but we appreciate it because every time we have lost our life, we gain it.
Matthew 10:39
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
05/15/06 @ 22:23
05/30/06 @ 07:46 It is the strong man that chooses love and forgiveness through sacrifice of himself and his own desires, not following after the ungodly men of this world. His justification is in the Lord and he chooses to follow Me...in My very footsteps. ~ Jesus [Letters from God and His Christ - Volume 6 - Keep Not the Company of the Wicked, This is Where All Seeds of Dissension Grow]
