A few days ago I wrote about how, after months of training and a few races, I now thought of myself as a runner. Of course now that I'm a "runner" I can't simply decide to wear that label for the rest of my life. I am and will be a runner only for as long as I keep running. A time will come in my life when I will once again cease to be a runner and I will have to say that I used to be a runner. At some point age, injury or bad habits will get the better of me and that will be the end of my running days. Until then I have to keep running if I'm going to be known as a runner, let alone call myself a runner.
That last sentence is an interesting one... "I have to keep running if I'm going to be known as a runner, let alone call myself a runner." You see, other people were calling me a runner several months before I was willing to call myself a runner. In fact the biggest influence I had in calling myself a runner was that others had already identified this trait in my life. Imagine if we weren't allowed to call ourselves Christians until other people were referring to us as followers of Jesus? Are we known as followers of Jesus or is it just a title we give ourselves?
The point is that many of us have forgotten about the importance of sanctification in the life of a follower of Jesus. Like a runner, a Christian is not just something you become once and then can claim for the rest of your life. To be a Christian, a follower of Jesus takes a lifetime commitment to work, to engage in ongoing training, to endure and to persevere...
"Not that I have... already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me... But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining to what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12-14 (TNIV)
Far too many Christians have given up trying, given up on living a holy life...
"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but have no deeds? Can such faith save them?" James 2:14 (TNIV)
Keep following Jesus. Be known to the world as a Christian, one who follows Jesus the Christ.

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