THE RACE

My life in Christ is a race. It is a race that grows me into the disciple He desires. The Message says, "Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls" (Hebrews 12:2-3, The Message).

Every day I need the spiritual adrenalin the Holy Spirit imparts. In these few verses in Hebrews, the Lord gives me the way to attain it. Keep my eyes on Jesus. Keep my eyes on the goal, the prize, the grand finish to come. When I find myself weary in faith then I have taken my eyes off of Him, and allowed the hardship of life to pull me away from His protecting and guiding hand. And look at all He put up with! I might feel rejected. I know nothing about being shamed and feeling rejected. I might be battered by the enemy. I really can't comprehend the depth he fought the enemy and then won! I've never endured the pain of what He did for me on the cross. But if He endured, then I can also. The writer to the Hebrews speaks God's truth when he imparts that going over and over what Christ did for me..... item by item.... will give me the spiritual adrenalin to rise up and run my face.

 

There is an end to this race. Christ attained that victory when He conquered sin and death. He now is with His father urging each one of us own to finish our own race. The Holy Spirit is our power to run the race bravely and rise above all the obstacles that hinder. Without His power, we will fail the course. If I focus on each obstacle, then my eyes are not on Him, but on the problem the obstacle presents. I will keep my eyes on Jesus Christ, the beginner of this faith in my heart, and allow Him to bring it to completion.

I will never let this race of life defeat, and rob me of the promise at the goal line. I will let it inspire me to greater heights. He is my victory, my promise, my joy, my peace, and my life.