Keep Your Eyes On The Prize
Keep Your Eyes On The Prize
I was watching a young squirrel jump from the bird bath onto the pole that held the treasured reward: bird seed! It was comical to watch at first. He would take run after run going up the pole and climb to the top of the baffle that was stopping him from reaching the feeders. About the sixth time; success! He had to make it to just under the top of the baffle knowing he would be slipping. The key was to be able to jump just at the right time as he was slipping over to one of the bird feeders catching just one rung on the outside cage of the feeder. Timing had to be perfect.
It wasn’t easy. It took determination and discipline. Focus on nothing else but the prize.
It would be easy for me to throw some seed out for the squirrels to pick off the ground. But this day seems to hold a lesson – Keep your eye on the prize – don’t give up – don’t give in. It seems these days it is easy to give up, give in, take the easy route. There is less interest in tenacity and determination. Focus and value don’t seem as important today.
Are you thinking I’m referring to social or financial? I’m not. I’m referring to our relationship with God. Considering a time when we knew we needed God rather than a convenient connection to God. For me, I remember a time when the thought of living without Him caused deep pain. I knew what existing without God was like. It was a black emptiness devoid of hope and I would never go there again.
I had gained an intense desire to spend time with my Heavenly Father, in prayer, reading His Word, sometimes just thinking about Him and in my heart talking to Him as if we were walking a strip of beach together.
I did Bible studies, met with other people and talked about how God impacts our own individual lives. How we were better at living because of our relationship with God. In AA it was the foundation of our sobriety for many of us. We were sober because of our dependence on God often in spite of our own weaknesses and challenges.
As the years go by, how many of us, me included, allow complacency and distance to affect our relationship with God? Do we keep our eye on the prize? Are we passionate to have our lives enriched as a result of our time spent with God? It is not in looking outward at what we have materially but inwardly examining our heart, our words, and our actions?
When we allow God to transform our thinking, impacting our heart, emotions, and actions we become better at life and living.
It is not what others do but what we do that concerns God and affects our relationship with Him. When we refuse to love, be patient with others, be kind, gentle, faithful and practicing self-control we tell God we need Him as a convenience, not as an active, intimate, and committed partner.
Our pride and self-indulgence are not nearly as satisfying as pursuing and embracing all that God has for us when we consider Him in our total life: our will, emotions, thoughts, actions, and in the words we speak or hold silent.
Over the years I have found when I am too busy for God and my time with Him is cut short that my emotions and circumstances direct how good I am at living; or not. If my world is too hectic or too demanding without God in the middle of my focus, the awareness of peace becomes unattainable leaving me with a sense of lack and disappointment. My eyes, during that time of distance, have been taken away from the prize: a relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit completely integrated into my mind, emotions, and will.
It is with an intimate connection to God, we have all the resources we need to run our race with grace, mercy, strength, and a love that is compelling and contagious.
Whether we are running a race, engaging in a goal, or pursuing a relationship it will take discipline, tenacity, and perseverance. Similarly, intimacy with our Heavenly Father does not come without continued persistent adjusting, assessing, and renewing our focus and activities.
Paul wants us to be encouraged. He wants us to know we are not alone in our faith. We are not the first or the last to run this race and have the power to do it well. He tells us this:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
Hebrews 12:1-3 New International Version (NIV)
There is a peace deep in our heart that passes all understanding when we are partnered with God. There is joy, passion, adventure, and peace when we have an actively intimate bond with God. Eventually, we start to become a reflection of our Heavenly Father to the world around us.
Are you willing to ask yourself “is my relationship with God intimate or convenient?”
