The Winner - Tract (Pack of 50)

Do you want to be a winner?
Of course you do.
Do you want success?
You bet.

If you work hard, you want the rewards that come with it. It’s only right isn’t it?

No point being an athlete and putting in all the training, if you don’t aim to win the race, is there?

Sportspeople love a challenge. You want to fi nish first, to improve your time, to break records, to be the best. And if you’re in a team, you want to work with others to win those medals, top the league or lift the trophy. It’s the same in lots of walks of life: we want to make the most of our abilities – to reach the summit and achieve recognition.

Our moment of glory. Our 15 minutes of fame. And our world likes and rewards the successful: with fame, money, adulation, status, and power. But no-one remembers who came second. The nearly men. The people who had a go but came up short.
The brave losers.

The world’s view of success is a brutal way of assessing our value and worth. Particularly as most of us don’t succeed most of the time.

Fortunately, God’s assessment of our value is rather different.

We are made in his image – “So God said: ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness ...’” Genesis 1: 26. We are born for a reason – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8: 28

He values us so highly, he was prepared to see his Son pay the ultimate price for things we have done wrong, which the Bible calls sin – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3: 16 And his view of success is entirely different to ours. It’s about living a life of obedience.

It’s about doing what he gives us to do, however insignifi cant it may sometimes seem – “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3: 17)