Running The Race
God Disciplines His Sons
Hebrews 12: 1Therefore, since we aresurrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything thathinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverancethe race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes onJesus, the author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before himendured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of thethrone of God. 3Consider him who endured such oppositionfrom sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Galatians 5:7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you andkept you from obeying the truth?
2 Timothy 2:4 No one serving as asoldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commandingofficer.
Tobuild on Lance’s last post, let’s take a look, for an instant, of where we havebeen and where we want to go. I thinkabout the parable of the seed that Jesus told his disciples and other witnessesto the Truth. The point of the Parable,to this post, is where you are getting your strength and training from. The point being that there is a beginning andan ending and that we have to be prepared to finish the race strong. Lance made a point that he had to raise thebar in his life as a runner and as a husband and father, by surrounding himselfwith others, who raised the bar from mediocrity to the elite. Not all of us can go out and consistently runa 5:30 minute mile for one mile, let alone 8 miles straight. However, with a lot of encouragement andtraining from his friends, Lance was able to meet that goal and looking back,realized that it was all the more sweeter.
Todayis the second day of January in the year 2010. Many of us may find ourselves frustrated with our lives (our marriages,our parenting, our work, and our serving others) and may desire to domore. As a new Christian we jumped outof the starting blocks and read our bibles daily and got involved at church andfor some may have joined a mini-church or men’s group, BUT then it happened, weslipped back into that hidden sin of ours and that laziness and we are nolonger able to compete the way that we started. I like what Galatians says in that who cut in on us and took away thetruth from our lives. It is never toolate to pick up the Word and start training again. We can open up the very book that will readour lives to the core and convict us of that which we have to let go and tomove closer to God. We can pray and askthe Holy Spirit to guide us in our race. We are all in this race, called life, and it is not a sprint, nor is ita quick jaunt around the race track, but it is a marathon race. We need to stay fit (biblically andphysically speaking). We need to sharpenour senses and prepare for battle. Weneed to have accountability in our life (free accountability software) and weneed to be honest with God and with our wives (lives for some who are notmarried) and to start the training process all over again.
Doyou want to be elite? Do you want apurpose driven life? Do you want to stepout of mediocrity and into the elite? That is, do you want to be a disciple forChrist? A soldier in the ultimate battlefor lives, this is war and this is for keeps? Are you ready? Are youprepared? What is it going to take toget you off your seats and instead of being a pew sitter, you can become aheavy hitter in the Kingdom of God.