The Prize Ahead

Love is directional and transformative. Love leads. What you love will determine the direction of your life.

“Josiah was eight years old when he became king...He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and followed the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left. In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols...paid the workers who repaired and restored the temple. The workers labored faithfully...Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD that had been given through Moses. When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes...Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD. Then the king called together all the elders...all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the LORD. The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD—to follow the LORD and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book.”‭‭2 Chronicles‬ ‭34‬:‭1‬-‭31

What do you love? Where is it leading you? You can love money, and it can lead to more hours at work. You can love seeing the world, and it can lead you to travel. You can love pleasure and be led to a life of partying. You can love your family and be led to put your phone away so you can be present. You can love Jesus and be led to pick up your cross. Love led Josiah on the narrow road. The text says he turned neither to the right nor to the left. Love determined the direction he went.

Love led Josiah to repentance and humility. He had been seeking God and restoring the temple when his people found Moses' Bible. Ironically, the song of the year this year in Christian music is by another Josiah. Josiah Queen won the Dove Award, the prize for best song, for the song "Dusty Bibles." Imagine the dust on Moses' Bible in the roughly 800 years between Moses and Josiah. You thought cleaning your blinds was bad.

Josiah tore his clothes and rent his heart. Think about the effort and strength required to tear your clothes. Even more than that, think about what the act said about his heart. The act of humility was a declaration that he loved God more than his material possessions. Love led him to share the Word and renew the covenant with as many people as possible. Where will what you love lead you?

“I will sing of your love and justice; to you, LORD, I will sing praise. I will be careful to lead a blameless life— I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart. I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it. Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate...the one whose walk is blameless will minister to me. No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭101‬:‭1‬-‭7

Love led David to holiness. It stirred in him a desire to purify his heart and live a blameless life. He refused to go along with the crowd or the culture around him. Love led him to take a stand against anything vile, unfaithful, unholy, haughty, or false. Much like Josiah, David sought to purify his life so that he could make room for more of God's presence everywhere he was.

Love led him to change how he looked at life. He began his song through the lens of how God is loving and just. We will find more success in life when we raise the bar by applying God's standards to our lives than we do when we just try to do better than the person next to us. There is a trap of comparison where we can find comfort in not sinning as much as someone else. The call as a Christ follower is to look to Christ as our North Star directionally. As you draw closer inward to the love of Christ, He will naturally guide you in external changes.

"We rejoice and delight in you. We will praise your love more than wine. how right they are to adore you. How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves. How handsome you are, my beloved!" ‭‭Song of Songs‬ ‭1‬:‭15‬-‭16‬

Love leads us to joy and delight. Do you feel joy in your heart? Is more joy, continual joy, the direction you are headed? Think about a time when you have felt the most at peace, the most loved, the most connected. This is the way God wants you to feel all the time as you stand on His promise that He is with you. You are never alone. He wants you to experience the joy of His presence so that spending time with Him would be something you want more than anything. This does not mean you have to abandon your interests; rather, it means He wants you to be aware of His presence as you do what you do.

The way of Jesus is not a dead-end road. It leads to an eternal prize along with empowerment today. The bride compares the sweetness of the love she has found with wine and finds there is no comparison. Love led her to listen to the truth, and the truth told her that she is beautiful. Do you know that when God looks at you, He says the same thing? He sees beauty and a child that He delights in. If each of us could learn to see ourselves as God sees us, our world would change.

“Son of man, take up a lament concerning Tyre...You say, Tyre, “I am perfect in beauty...Tarshish did business with you because of your great wealth of goods; they exchanged silver, iron, tin and lead for your merchandise. In your marketplace they traded with you beautiful garments, blue fabric, embroidered work...the ships of Tarshish serve as carriers for your wares. You are filled with heavy cargo as you sail the sea. But the east wind will break you to pieces far out at sea. Your wealth, merchandise and wares, your mariners...will sink into the heart of the sea on the day of your shipwreck.” ‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭27‬:‭1‬-‭32

God wants you to live in a place where you experience peace, wholeness, and integrity. He wants you to know you are loved, but He does not want you to fall in love with glorifying yourself. Tyre was a city of great wealth, and its love of money led its people to an inward-focused life. This same trap has been set for anyone living a life of luxury. The question will come whether you love your comfort and possessions more than a life of sacrifice, generosity, and glorifying God.

Contrast King Josiah, who tore his robes, with the people of Tyre, who traded theirs. Love of God led Josiah to humility. Love of more led the people of Tyre in the wrong direction. They chose the material over the spiritual. When the storm came, all they worked for and cared about was lost. Loss can be the clarifier in our lives of whether what we have been living for is worthy of our love. Note that in this chapter, God does not celebrate their loss. He tells Ezekiel to take up a lament. God lets us choose the direction of our lives and laments when we choose something other than Him because He knows that all other roads apart from Him lead to destruction.

“If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews...To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly.” ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭9‬:‭11‬-‭12‬, ‭19‬-‭27

Love led Paul to sacrifice and strict training. Never forget that Paul did not take the first step. Paul encountered the love of Jesus Christ, and it changed his life. It changed his direction. We love because Jesus first loved us. Paul did not run the race to win because he was such a good runner. He trained and lived with a focus on the mission set before him because of how profoundly love had transformed him.

Love leads to freedom. Paul had every right to demand payment from the people he was preaching to and claim a prize here and now. Love led him in a different direction. Love led him to let offense never have the last word. It would have been so easy to be offended by how others were treating him when all he was trying to do was help encourage them. Love led him to lay down his rights so that others could find a right relationship with Jesus.

Ask yourself if you have the same heart as Paul. Do you care more about getting what you are owed or giving up everything to lift others up? How could you grow in disciplining your life so you could be a more loving disciple of Jesus? Paul met people where they were so that they could know how much they matter to the God who calls them beautiful. Paul ran for the prize. So did David and Josiah. They determined in their hearts that loving God was worth more to them than what they were due.

The prize is the presence of God. The prize is eternal life with Jesus. And the amazing truth is that we do not have to wait until we have breathed our last breath to enjoy the prize before us. We have the Holy Spirit within us. We have access to the fullness of the presence of God in the present moment.

Think about the contrast between Tyre and Jesus. The people of Tyre built their lives around accumulating more for themselves. Jesus, who possessed all the glory of heaven, humbled Himself and gave everything so that you could receive the prize of eternal life. Tyre loved earthly possessions that could be lost. Jesus loves the lost.

We love because He first loved us. Jesus did not go to the cross because we had earned His love. He went because He loved us. And when you begin to understand the depth of that love, it changes everything. Repentance becomes a response to grace. Holiness becomes an expression of gratitude. Worship a celebration of our Savior. Sacrifice becomes a life of joy where we live to give.

What do you love most? Where is that love leading you? Do not spend your life running after a prize that will perish. Let love lead you to repentance like Josiah, holiness like David, joy like the bride, and sacrifice like Paul. Hear the voice that calls you beautiful and be intentional about how you pursue a life worthy of the prize set before you. Receive the love that took Jesus to the cross, and let that love transform the direction of your life. The more you know how deeply you are loved, the more freely you will love others. Run to win the prize set before you powered by the love of Christ within you.