Now that the Olympics are over and the Para-Olympics are on, we have seen and heard about amazing achievements, such as the four young South African swimmers who beat America and Australia in the 4×100 meter relay race, the young Sandton boy who broke three world records with his artificial legs and the young lady from Cape Town who won three gold medals with an amputated leg! Imagine how they trained and what stress they had to endure in order to win those prizes!
Spiritual Athlete
Andre Pelser
2004/09/25

Hebrews 12:1,2
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is seated in the place of highest honor beside God’s throne in heaven.

Now that the Olympics are over and the Para-Olympics are on, we have seen and heard about amazing achievements, such as the four young South African swimmers who beat America and Australia in the 4×100 meter relay race, the young Sandton boy who broke three world records with his artificial legs and the young lady from Cape Town who won three gold medals with an amputated leg! Imagine how they trained and what stress they had to endure in order to win those prizes!

Paul advised Timothy to consider three different life-styles in order to understand the requirements of the Christian life: the farmer, the soldier and the athlete.

2 Timothy 2:3-5
3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.5 And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

The athlete has to accept certain disciplines that no one else has to in order to aim at the highest level of achievement. Here are four main requirements for an athlete to consider:
1. Training never ceases for an athlete
2. Compete according to the rules (I Tim 2:5)
3. Do not run uncertainly or doubtfully (I Cor 9:25)
4. Press towards the mark for the prize (Phil 3:13, 14)

I am amazed at how many believers feel discouraged when they have to learn something new. Exasperated they ask: ‘When will the training ever stop?’ They want to arrive at the place where they leave the school of Christ, but if you think like a professional athlete this is not even a consideration. The moment you stop training you can no longer compete for the prize! The Christian walk is very similar: you are always growing in the knowledge of our Lord and have to continually receive instruction as you progress to higher levels of spiritual life.

Many Christians feel they can be a believer all by themselves. They want to do it ‘My Way’ as Frank Sinatra used to sing. But unfortunately for them you cannot do it your way. You have to compete according to the rules. Athletes who break the rules are disqualified. Paul says he chastises his body so that he does not become disqualified after having trained and taught others. TV and the media has given luke-warm Christians the notion that they can neglect the assembling of themselves together with other saints in a church and be a private Christian. They are deceiving themselves. If you are not part of a body of believers the devil will eventually devour you and shipwreck your faith. Christ is the Head of a body, not a programme! TV is a mere appetizer, mere vitamin tablets: doing the will of our heavenly Father is our meat! Jesus explained that in John 4.

Uncertainty destroys progress: a double-minded person cannot receive anything from God. In sport, if you hesitate, you loose. Especially in cricket: you have 0.432 seconds to play a shot against bowlers such as Brett Lee and Shoab Akthar! They bowl at speeds of 155 kilometeres per hour!

When God told Joshua to step into Moses’ position of authority after Moses died he told him not to become discouraged or dismayed. Dismay means ‘temporary hesitation’. Many Christians are so afraid of failure that they rather do nothing! They bury their talents in the sand – but the Lord rebukes those for not multiplying what they have been given. He gives what they have hidden to those who went out and traded with their talents to bring increase to the Kingdom of Christ.

If you do not have a prize in sight, if you cannot see the finishing line there is no motivation to run. Paul says, he pressed towards the goal for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. What are you running for? Is the prize you want worth the effort?

Paul adds a command to Timothy: Run the race with patience!

Patience is ‘hupomone’ in Greek. It is more than biting your lip and waiting. It is the steadfastness that will help you endure to the end: never swerving from your deliberate purpose, remaining loyal to Christ’s cause even in the greatest tests and trials.

The word Paul chose to use for ‘run’ is ‘trecho’ and it means to spend one’s strength in performing in order to attain something. It requires exertion of all one’s efforts to overcome.

Here is something very interesting: ‘race’ in Greek is ‘agon’, the root word of agony or agonize, implying conflict, fight, contending. It is a contest for a prize and there is a battle, a struggle going on. It is not easily obtained.

But we have witnesses around us that have finished the race! Hebrews 12:1 talks about a cloud (nephos) of witnesses that surround us. This Greek word describes an undefined mass, referring to testimonies of people rather than people. These testimonies tell us about men and women of God who faced great trials of faith and how they overcome. Their testimonies serve to encourage us and to exhort us to finish the race with patience. Their dependence on God brought ultimate victory. They faced the fire, lions and the Red Sea and passed their test of faith!

Jesus endured the pain and shame of the cross for the joy that was set before Him. If we look at His example we gain courage to run the race set before us.

Backyard athletes have no coaches, but they do not win any prizes either. Coaching is a necessary element in the race of faith as well. By accepting spiritual coaching (we call it discipleship) we learn to lay aside the weights and sins that so easily beset us and weigh us down. An athlete streamlines his life in order to compete for a prize.

There are four ways to respond to coaching: with resignation, self-pity, resentful or angry and finally grateful for the coaching. A demanding coach pushes an athlete to the limit and requires disciplined life-style. He encourages the athlete to give up anything that hinders progress.

The Holy Spirit is our coach: He leads and guides us into all truth and shows us things to come. He also speaks to us through the five fold ministry in the church and often speaks to us through dreams and visions, prophecy and even through nature. For those who have an ear to hear, the Spirit is often speaking to us in the church.

First the natural and then the spiritual: if you understand the natural you have an idea about the spiritual realm.

Exercise is an activity contracting skeletal muscles and promoting fitness. It is under our conscious control. Anaerobic exercise such as weight lifting brings soreness as a result because of the lactic acid build up and oxygen debt. Aerobic