How’s Your Race Going?

Are you ready to quit, have you fallen, or are you charging towards the finish line?

After receiving a terminal diagnosis and given a few months to live, my friend Pat said, “I want to finish my race well.”

I want that too. When I cross the finish line, I want God to say “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23)

We are given one life, no do-overs.

Here are some running tips all of us can use:

Run Light – ditch what weighs you down.

Just like running with ankle weights will weigh you down, sin will sabotage the runner.

Hebrews 12:1b (NKJV) “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”

Run Smart – keep hydrated.

Just as runners need water, we need to be actively studying the Bible. It provides the map and instructions on how to do this thing.

Joshua 1:8 (NKJV)
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.”

Run Long – this is no sprint.

This life race requires endurance. We don’t quit; we persevere. If we trip and faceplant, we get right back up again.

Hebrews 10:36 (NASB 1995)
“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.”

Run Determined - focus on the prize.

Runners don’t run backward; leave the past behind you. Finishing the race requires moving forward even when the finish line isn’t in sight.

Philippians 3:13-14 (NKJV)
“…forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Let’s focus on running our race well:

• If you are tasting the dirt flying off the racer’s shoes ahead of you, spit it out and keep going.

• If someone says “Give up, you’ll never make it,” as they pass, brush it off and keep running.

• You will cross the finish line because you are running in God’s strength, not your own.

2 Timothy 4:7-8a (NKJV)
”I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day,”