Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but [only] one receives the prize? So run [your race] that you may lay hold [of the prize] and make it yours. 1 Corinthians 9:24, Amplified Bible

It was dejecting. Barely ten minutes into the game, my daughter’s high school soccer team was already down 2-0. They were playing a team that they hadn’t beaten in years, and the way our girls were hanging their heads, it looked like they were already planning on another loss.

A third of the way through the second half, my daughter’s team scored its first goal. Now, with the score only 2-1, there was fight in our girls! They pushed and shoved and ran until they could go no more, and by the end of the second half, the game was tied 2-2. Into the first overtime they went: scoreless. Into the second overtime they went: scoreless. Now it came down to PKs (penalty kicks), and each team had five attempts. The opposing team scored first. We tied. The opposing team missed shot number two! We scored! Before it was all said and done, our girls won the PKs 3-2, and they had done something they’d not done in years – they had beaten their arch-nemesis!

What enabled our girls to achieve this gritty, hard-fought victory? A decision to keep fighting. In sports, the contest often doesn’t go to the more athletic team or the more skilled one; it often goes to the one with more heart. The opposing team was bigger, faster, and stronger. But, in the end, it was heart, not size, that won the day.

In our Christian walk, we will often be beaten down, overrun, outskilled, and outclassed. Despite this, our part is not to give in but to get up and keep on fighting. Does this mean that we can accomplish things for God solely in our own power? No, of course not. God must empower us in order for us to accomplish anything for Him. But, oftentimes, God chooses to withhold His supernatural enabling until we make a decision of will to exercise our faith in His power to enable. In other words, oftentimes He wants us to step into the Jordan before He will part the waters (Read this post on Joshua 3:15-16.). That is why God (through Paul) encouraged us to imitate the fervor of a competitive athlete in our daily walk, and it’s also why He (through Paul) admonished us to fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12). There is no room for passiveness in either 1 Corinthians 9:24 or 1 Timothy 6:12; there is only room for action.

Don’t act blindly, though. Until you know what it is God wants you to do in this moment, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life, wait patiently for the Lord (Psalm 37:7a) and He shall direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). But, when you know what the prize is that you are supposed to strive for, then STRIVE!