Winning by Losing

Our Daily Bread Podcast | Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread Ministries

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.6 • 955 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Not winning is in fact more powerful than winning,” professor Monica Wadhwa argues. Her research reveals that people tend to be most energized and motivated not when they win, but when they almost win. Falling just short of one’s ambitions tends to give people the motivation to keep growing and striving. Easy victories, on the other hand, tend to cripple energy and motivation.

Wadhwa’s perspective gives fresh insight on Paul’s analogy comparing following Christ to running a race (1 Corinthians 10:24-27; Philippians 3:12-14). In both instances, Paul emphasizes that believers ought to give their pursuit of Christ and the gospel their all, “straining toward what is ahead” (Philippians 3:13) and running “in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24).

The paradoxical truth is that what we’re striving for—faithfully sharing the gospel (v. 23) and knowing Christ (Philippians 3:8)—aren’t things we can ever say we’ve achieved. We’ll always fall short. We’ll never be able to say we’ve “already arrived” (v. 12).

But that’s okay—because it’s the experience of drawing ever closer to Christ that matters. It’s only His strength that empowers and motivates us to pour our whole hearts into pursuing Him—the One who will one day carry us to victory.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Run in such a way as to get the prize.
0:04.0	1 Corinthians 9, verse 24.
0:08.7	Welcome to this daily encouragement from Our Daily Bread.
0:13.1	Winning by losing was written by Monica LaRose and read by Rochelle Troub.
0:21.9	1 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 19 through 27.
0:27.1	Though I am free and belong to no one,
0:30.1	I have made myself a slave to everyone
0:32.6	to win as many as possible.
0:35.8	To the Jews, I became like a Jew to win the Jews. To those under the law,
0:41.9	I became like one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, so as to win those under the law.
0:49.4	To those not having the law, I became like one not having the law, though I am not free from God's law,
0:56.4	but am under Christ's law, so as to win those not having the law. To the weak, I became weak
1:03.9	to win the week. I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the
1:14.3	sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the
1:21.4	runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
1:29.0	Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.
1:33.2	They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last
1:39.0	forever.
1:40.6	Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly.
1:44.8	I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.
1:47.8	No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave
1:52.0	so that after I have preached to others,
	...

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