RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

I’ll never forget the night that I opened my heart to Jesus and followed Him. My life was instantly transformed. It wasn’t that I never failed Him after that. My heart was changed – from living for myself to loving God and loving others. I didn’t realize it, but God had placed me on a highway with eternal purpose and told me to walk on it. I then knew why He had created me, and I wanted to follow His plans for my life.
It wasn’t long before I discovered that loving God and loving others couldn’t be compartmentalized. The more I loved Him, the more I loved others. That’s why Jesus’ response to a young lawyer was so significant. When asked to cite the greatest commandment, Jesus didn’t simply answer with the greatest commandment, but also with another one very similar to the first one –– “love your neighbor as yourself.”
I’ve spent the last few decades trying to understand what it means to love God and love others. Perhaps one of the most practical, Biblical lessons I’ve come to understand is that my closest neighbors are my wife and children. An accurate portrayal of my love for God is often seen by how I love them.
This foundational truth for our lives and society enables us to understand that God didn’t create us to live alone. The first commandment He gave to Adam and Eve was to be fruitful, multiply and fill the Earth. This commandment came before the fall of mankind –– before they were stained with sin. They were in a right relationship with God, and He wanted this world filled with people who loved Him and loved one another.
We know that Adam and Eve sinned, turned away from God’s command and thought they knew what was best for them. The result: envy, anger, murder, and lies – all within the family. When their hearts turned away from God, darkness flooded the world. They multiplied and filled the Earth, but not with God’s eternal purpose.
God loved us, even though we turned away from Him. And He never stopped loving us. He knew that we would need a Savior, a Deliverer from our self-centeredness. It never left His heart to see His plan fulfilled. Therefore, He decided to send His only Son so that we might know Him and turn back to Him. He looked into the future and saw the exact moment in which His Son would come to the Earth and sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins.
How did the most unique human being come to this planet? Jesus was called the Son of God and the Son of Man. He was all God; yet, all man. The Bible tells us in Genesis 15 that God spoke to a man called Abram and showed him the stars in heaven. He told Abram that He would give him a son, a family that would become greater than the stars in the heavenly bodies.
God brought to pass the promise when He sent Jesus. As God, Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, but as man He descended from the family of Abraham.
God’s intent from the beginning has never changed. He longed for this world to be filled with people who know and love Him. He created a family unit to fulfill that purpose. He called a man named Abram and miraculously gave him a family. So much of God’s purpose is tied to the family unit. He wants us to grow and multiply in a secure environment, one where there’s a deep love for God and love for one another. It’s called “family.”
Darkness is rapidly spreading around the world. When we do what we were created to do, that’s when His light shines brightly. That’s when we find security and God’s purpose is returned to culture.
In the beginning, God created male and female, and the two would become one flesh. It was out of this human relationship that children would be born, that people would multiply and fill the world. Nothing has changed. It’s still God’s plan. It still works today. It’s still the foundational institution for our lives and for society.
Society becomes corrupted when we lose sight of God’s purpose. Love Him and love others! Our only hope is to do what He created us to do. That means loving our family!