Running well?

"You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?" Galatians 5:7 (niv)

How well are you running the Christian race? At first (their first love for God), they behaved themselves very commendably, had readily embraced the Christlike life and discovered a zealous way walking the Jesus walk and working hard at it. And in their baptism, they have surrendered 'their whole life' to the Lord declaring themselves aloud they are followers of Christ and their behavior was agreeable to the Holy and Eternal Word of God! Are you running well? But there is a problem among Christians today:

"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love." Revelation 2:4 (niv)

Christians simply give up running the race for the crown of life. The life of a Christian is a race, so therefore, the Christian must run and keep on running. It's an eternal marathon with God! We must constantly keep our eye on the prize which is in Heaven. It is not enough that we run the race by merely professing we're a Christian but we "must run well" by living up to what we profess! Thus these Christians may be running the race for a while, then something obstructed their progress to grow and mature, were either turned out of the way or brought up a white flag calling it quits.

So, therefore, Apostle Paul asks us, "..who cut in on you.."? You were running well but now you couldn't hold on in the way! Some of us rather run a mile, 5 miles, or 10 miles. But running a marathon would be too much and time consuming. Paul knew those in the Galatian church. He knew what it was that hindered them. But he threw in a question that only the "quitters" can answer for themselves. And seriously consider if they had any good reason for quitting, for lagging behind, for slowing down? Here are some reasons why they simply quit:

1. They believed in God and surrendered their life to Him (in part) and ran well for a while. Then they started to run out and in bounds, until they allowed things in life to hinder their progresses and turned out of the way.

2. They have become tired after hearing the messages of the Lord over and over. Then allowing stumbling blocks in their way doing nothing to divert from them and avoid the dangers. This is especially important for young converts whom needs to be forewarned.

3. There will be those who will mislead a Christian away from obeying the truth and thereby are in danger of losing the greatest blessings they had done from the start until the turning point.

We are to embrace and profess the truth, the gospel that was preached to us. No matter how often we have heard the greatest stories of God, it's the only true way to find justification and salvation! And this, we must fully obey the form of teaching that God has entrusted us! What do we do with the gospel that was given to us?

1. The truth is not only to be "believed" but to be "obeyed"!
2. We receive the truth in love and grasp the awesome power of it!
3. We need to acknowledge that those who do not rightly obey the truth will be judged by God!
4. Our obeying the truth and embracing it enables us to run well in the Christian race and to persevere through just about any hindrances that comes our way.

When running the race well, we must strip off the "me-centered-mentality" and clothe ourselves daily with the "Christ-centered-mentality". I can give you alot of examples of "me-centered-mentality" but I think you know this mentality very well. Whatever you think or feel that is defending against the truth (yet you believe and love God), is still a "me-centered-mentality".. You do what you feel is best for you (me-centered) instead of doing what is best for God (Christ-centered)!

So how well are you running today?