BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

I don’t think I’m unusual in that respect. I believe most people in our society (at least in secular society) want to be winners. With believers, it’s another story. Somehow many Christians have been conditioned to believe that winning is not a valid goal for them. They’re convinced that winning is unimportant at best and positively unbiblical at worst! If that’s what you’ve been told, I have news for you. God created you to win, not just spiritually, but in your relationships, your finances, your profession and every other area of life. I’ll go one step further. If you’re not at least in the process of becoming that kind of winner, you’re not fulfilling God’s whole purpose for your life. And you’re missing out on the contentment and sense of fulfillment God wants you to have. “That’s a pretty strong statement, Pastor Mac. Can you back it up with Scripture?” You bet I can. In Genesis 1:26-27 God says: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over...all the earth.... So God created man in his own image....” Would you agree that God is a winner? If we are made in His image and likeness, then redeemed man must be designed to be a winner, too. In fact, after God made Adam and Eve, He commanded them to go win! Look at the very next verse, Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion....” God’s very first marching orders to mankind were “subdue” and “have dominion.” In other words, “Go out there and win!” Likewise, as a born-again, restored child of God, you are to exercise dominion over your world. That means every aspect of daily living—every circumstance in your life—should be in subjection to God. Winning Ways Let’s get practical. It’s one thing to know that God wants you to be a winner. It’s another thing to know how to become one. Thankfully, God has given us His Word to guide us and great men of faith to be our examples. Philippians is a book about winning, written by a winner—the Apostle Paul. What is it that made Paul such an outstanding winner? We find the answer to that question in Philippians 3:12-14: Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Look again at that last phrase. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God. A powerful prescription for victory, it contains four terms that represent the keys to finding and fulfilling God’s destiny for your life. They are “press,” “mark,” “prize” and “high calling.” BVOV : 21

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