Are You Still Running? :: Deeper Devotion

By Glenn Ansley

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…

It’s a great day for the race. I just wish more individuals would open their eyes long enough to acknowledge the fact that they’re still in it. There’s no denying it. God the Father has created you and placed you in the race (Ephesians 1:3, 4). Jesus Christ, once you accepted Him as Lord and Savior of your life, has become your strength and nourishment, your only means of finishing the race (Ephesians 1:7-8). Finally, the Holy Spirit has been given to you as a coach (John 14:26), revealing to you the true course of the race, teaching you to keep your eyes fixed on Christ, and convicting you when stop to pick up unnecessary weights along the way.

So many are in the race, but so few are advancing.

Are you having a hard time running? Have you forgotten that you’re even in a race? One only stops running a race when he passes the finish line or when he no longer has the strength to continue. You have not yet crossed that line (Philippians 4:21), nor have you lost the strength that enables you to run (Matthew 28:20b). Rather, you have allowed your eyes to lose focus of the goal and you have sought to find strength in yourself rather than Christ. I challenge you to look to those who have run the race and completed it (Hebrews 11). You must wake up every morning with the finish line on your mind. Learn from their failures and be motivated by their victories. Finally, look once again to Jesus Christ as your only source of strength. Daily confess to Him your dependence on His power and might. Thank Him for the sacrifice He so willingly paid that you might one day see the finish line.

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