A day-by-day Devotional

May 10, 2023

Vitamin potency

Chronological One Year Bible Reading Plan: 1 Chronicles 22-26

Scripture of the Day: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

I was asked if it is alright to take vitamin C that is past the expiry date. Unlike foods which go bad and become toxic, vitamins would only lose their potency with time. Simply put, if a tablet contains 500 mg of the vitamin, it is not that the amount would decrease, but the efficiency could ne reduced as though it has turned 250 mg, and much later, 125 mg.

Athletes train everyday. The personhood of the athlete remains the same and unchanged during the daily training. However, endurance and skills are developed with training. If the athlete stops training, the ability is reduced. Like the 500 mg vitamin, where the 500 mg weight is unaltered with time, the athlete remains to be the same person. But reduced training would decrease his potency as an athlete.

It is the same with playing a musical instrument. The more one practices, the better one‘s skills become, resulting to cleaner, crisper, more on-the-spot playing. There is even an on-going mantra in classical music, popularized through social media, that a musician needs to practice 40 hours a day.

In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote that athletes train hard. They run, but it is not without a goal. They set their aims, and train rigorously. Paul admonished that as believers we need to train like athletes. After all, athletes compete to win a trophy that does not last forever. We run the race, competing against darkness and evil, for a much greater reward than a trophy that does not stand a chance of making it to eternity.

As believers running the race, similar to athletes curbing unhealthy food cravings, we need to take control of our bodies. The physical body has fleshly desires. We need to keep these desires in check. Paul even goes much further as to say that we have to make our body (flesh) slaves of us. We should be the master, dictating it what needs to be done, and not the other way around.

One professor at my theological seminary asked in class if we think that it is at all possible not to sin. I believe that theoretically, it is. After all, the Lord allows us to be tried and tempted only for as much as we can bear. However, as we have not yet been fully perfected in Christ, although we have been sanctified (Hebrews 10:10), in this world, we will continue to fall.

However, like athletes who push through failures and difficulties, we need to persevere. We have to run the race knowing that we are already made victorious through Christ.

Reflection: Running our race in this world is not a walk in the park. But with careful training and perseverance, we would be able to finish well, with our great coach, the Lord Jesus Christ, cheering us on.

Prayer: Father, help me to set proper goals as I run the race. Help me eliminate habits that hinder my track. Amen.