Run Your Race With Patience

“Brethren, I count my myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the market for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 3:13-14

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” — Hebrews 12:1

Photo by Braden Collum via Unsplash

We see that in so many parts of scripture the Christian life is compared to a race, and as far as races go we should see it as a marathon and not a fifty yard dash. Opening your Bible a little each day is far better than going to a huge revival meeting at church once a year and then burning out. Prepare your heart each day to seek the Lord knowing that one day he will give you that crown of life. The Psalms are a great place to learn about how to pray and how to speak to God about any topic or emotion. Proverbs will give you a great deal of practical advice on how to live your life if you are at a crossroads. Pray often and keep a short account with God.

“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.” — 1st Corinthians 9:24-25.

Photo by Jonathan Chng via Unsplash

Run, that ye may obtain.

Selah.

The Big If

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" - Galatians 6:9

Simeon and Anna Praise the Infant Jesus - Arent de Gelder, Public Domain Image

Once saved always saved is a controversial concept among Christians. I believe it is true, but the problem is that we are so passive in our salvation it is easy to deceive ourselves into thinking we are right with God when we are not. The Lord knows who trusts in him and who belongs to him. We have only our own thoughts, words, and deeds to indicate where our heart is at any given moment.

[21] And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled [22] In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister. – Colossians 1

“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.” – Hebrews 3:14

“And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.” – 2nd John:6

Run your race with patience and lean not into your own understanding. The Lord is faithful even when we are not.

While He May Be Found

With a “dark winter” approaching for many of us, it is important to seek the Lord while we still can.

“I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.” — Psalm 36:5-6

"The Flood" — Johann Heinrich Schönfeld, Public Domain Image

Verse 6 echoes back to Noah’s day. When the flood came and the people realized what was happening, the ark had already been sealed shut. Genesis 7:16 reads, “and the LORD shut him in.”

The time to get on the ark is now. Be a shut in, not a shut out.

This seems at odds with a lot of contemporary preaching that promises that God is ready, willing, and in fact obligated to save any and everyone the moment they ask him to. But the Bible is full of warnings not to shun the Lord’s counsel when time's seem to be going well for you. Proverbs, one of the most practical books in the counsel of God begins with the following:

[24] Because I have called, and ye refused;

I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

[25] But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

[26] I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh.

[27] When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind;

when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

[28] Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer;

they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

[29] For that they hated knowledge,

And did not choose the fear of the LORD:

[30] They would none of my counsel:

They despised all my reproof.

[31] Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

[32] For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

Be a wise virgin and keep your lamps lit through the dark night. Keep an active prayer life and search the scriptures daily. For it is written:

“But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.” Proverbs 1:33

Amen.