The winning life isn't a casual stroll. It's a press.

To press means to expend maximum effort. Some Bible translations use the word strain. For example, instead of "I press toward the mark," Taylor says, "I strain to complete my race."

We've heard this term used frequently concerning very spiritual matters. We've been urged to "press into prayer" or "press into the Word." And certainly we need to press toward those things. But we mustn't stop there.

Our life is comprised of more than spiritual things alone. There is a press that is necessary to make relationships work. A press to keep your body healthy. A press to succeed in business. These are areas that have a very natural or physical component to them.

But pressing in any area isn't easy. That's why so many born-again winners are living like losers. Loser is such a distasteful word that I almost hesitate to use it. Perhaps non-winner would be more palatable to some people. But there's really no getting around it. If you're not walking in the way of the winner, you're losing.

I continually see good, Christian people - people who love God and want His will for their lives - yet who are failing in their relationships, in their finances, and in their careers. There are only two reasons for that kind of failure in the life of a believer.

The first is misdirection. We see that in order to be a winner, you must press toward a particular mark. Believers who press toward the wrong mark never make it to the winner's circle.

The second, and perhaps most common, reason believers lose is that they fail to press at all. Remember: to press means to make an all-out effort.

Losers don't press. They don't consistently make a maximum effort to reach their goal. The world may call it laziness or lack of ambition, but in reality the roots of this problem go much deeper.

It Takes Faith to Press
When you think about what makes a person press, what makes them give a maximum effort in pushing toward a goal, you'll realize it is belief.

Before we're willing to press we must believe the effort is worth the result it is going to produce. If you don't believe that your effort is going to be rewarded with a worthy result, you'll never press long enough, hard enough or consistently enough to arrive at the goal.

In a very real sense, it takes faith to press successfully. You have to truly believe that what you're doing is going to produce the desired result. But how does that kind of confidence come about? How do you develop the faith necessary to make a successful press toward the mark?

The answer can be found in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for&." So in reality, faith begins with hope!

Real Bible hope is very difficult from the wishful-thinking kind of hope most people are familiar with. Bible hope literally means confident, earnest expectation.

Say, for example, you've received an evil report from your doctor. You're told you have a disease for which there is no cure. Then you walk into a church and hear that God is willing and able to heal you. Suddenly hope begins to rise up within you.

Now, at that point you're not an instant mighty man or woman of faith. But hope, expectancy, has begun to rise in your heart. As you continue to hear the Word of God, faith comes (see Romans 10:17) and provides the substance for that which you have been hoping.

The Force of Disappointment
Just as a successful press of faith begins with hope (or in other words, a positive expectation), the opposite is true as well. The first step on the way of the loser is negative expectation.

Negative expectancy is an enormously destructive attitude that develops through repeated disappointments.

The force of disappointment in human experience is far more powerful than most of us ever suspect. It's responsible for sending many a believer down the way of the loser. I've seen it happen many times.

Someone who needs healing, for example, might come forward for prayer. If their healing doesn't manifest instantly, they may go away disappointed. Their original hope or expectancy has been frustrated. That, by the way, is precisely how Webster defines disappointment: the frustration of expectancy.

Later they hear a little more of the Word and hope begins to rise again. Once again their healing doesn't manifest immediately and, once more, they suffer disappointment. If that happens repeatedly, they can eventually develop a strong negative expectancy concerning healing.

Once disappointment has set in, the second step down the path of the loser is discouragement. The children of Israel once took that step. The book of Numbers tells us they became discouraged when their way got hard. When they left Egypt their hope and expectancy had been very high. But the harsh realities of the desert soon brought them to the place of disappointment. And disappointment unchecked always leads to discouragement.

The third step in this progression is despair. If you don't take decisive action to break out of this cycle, you will invariably move from disappointment to discouragement to despair.

That's what happened to Elijah. In 1 Kings 18, he defeated the 400 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Fire rained down, the prophets of Baal were put to the sword and God was greatly magnified. It was a mighty victory over idolatry in Israel.

Elijah must have thought, "Surely now this nation and its leadership will repent and turn from Baal worship." Yet he was shattered by disappointment when Queen Jezebel's only response was to threaten to have him killed.

It wasn't the fear of death that sent the prophet running for the hills. He had just faced down 400 demonic sorcerers. No, it was disappointment that took the wind out of his sails. Disappointment that a magnificent display of God's power had failed to move the queen. To Elijah's dismay, the nation continued in idolatry in spite of the great miracle.

That shattering disappointment quickly took him on to discouragement and dark despair. As a result, he fled to the wilderness, sat down in a cave and asked to die.

I can't tell you how many times people have sat across from my desk and said, "I don't have anything to live for." Imagine that! Born-again, Spirit-filled people who don't want to live because they've walked in the way of the loser. They've moved from disappointment to discouragement to despair and now they want to curl up and die.

Death is one of only two possible ends of the way of the loser. If the path doesn't end in death, it must end in deception.

What do I mean by deception? I'm talking about saying, "Well, I've tried this faith thing. I went through the healing line five times. I read four books on healing. I listened to every Kenneth Copeland tape I could get my hands on and it didn't work. This healing stuff must not be for real." That's deception. And it's born of a need to justify oneself.

When you deceive yourself in the process of self-justification, destruction is the ultimate result.

Dealing With the Force of Disappointment
Obviously, if you're going to avoid the way of the loser and walk in the way of the winner, it's crucial that you deal properly with disappointment. To find out how to do that, just look back at Philippians 3, our foundational passage of scripture concerning pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God. There in verse 13, Paul says you must forget "those things which are behind."

The quickest way to get into discouragement and despair is to focus on past disappointments. So don't do it! Don't dwell on the disappointment you felt when you didn't get that promotion. Don't keep mentally rehearsing those words of rejection that were spoken to you. Those memories will put you on the fast track to despair, deception or worse.

Even thoughts about the good things in the past can trip you up. They can lead you to feel disappointment about your current situation if it's not quite as bright as in days gone by.

Good or bad, you must leave the past behind. So, every time a memory of a disappointment arises in your consciousness (the Bible calls them "vain imaginations"), cast it down. Then press on toward "the mark for the prize of the high calling of God."

Source: The Way of The Winner by Mac Hammond
Excerpt permission granted by Living Word International, Inc.