Are you winning or whining?

Winning looks like:

Praise

Thanksgiving

Prayer

Obedience

Being in God’s Presence

Peace

Commitment

Persistence

Winning can be:

Overwhelming

Overflowing

Feeling tired

Knowing you’re empty

Feeling like you’re not enough

On the mountaintop

In the valley

Whining looks like:

Complaining

Choosing the world

Fitting in to society

Willful sin

Discontentment

Anger

Whining can be:

Overwhelming

Tired

Empty

Ashamed

On the mountaintop

In the valley

If you notice, winning and whining can be similar in circumstance. Both can be overwhelming, but one is overwhelmed by joy and the other by ill feelings. During both you may be tired, but if you’re winning your tiredness may be in the physical sense and not the in the spiritual sense and the cause for your exhaustion is worthy. If you know you’re empty but you’re winning, you know you can only be filled by the Spirit. (“And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” – Acts 13:52) You may know you’re not enough when you’re winning but that’s okay because God is making you enough; if you’re whining you aren’t striving to be better. Being a winner and being a whiner are not based on circumstance and your current situation. How you are choosing to respond to your current situation determines if you’re winning. Winning doesn’t mean you’re rich and having a mountaintop moment. Whining doesn’t mean you’re in a valley or poor. We can be just as quick to choose to complain about being on the mountain, as we could being in the valley. God doesn’t change between the two. It’s always going to feel easier to be a whiner- but praise anyway. Don’t give in to what’s easy, fight for what’s worth it.

Ask yourself these three questions:

Are you choosing to win or whine?

Where’s your finish line?

What’s your prize?

There is no prize for whining. Only winning. And Jesus is a victor overall, so choose His team. Choose to wake up and win. No matter what life looks like for you right now- because this isn’t the finish line- eternity is. Will you have be victorious over death, hell and the grave? Over sickness, bitterness and discontentment? Jesus is offering you a spot on the winning team. He already conquered it all.

“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” -1 Corinthians 15:57

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.” -1 Corinthians 9:24