DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE IN A RACE?
HOWEVER, THERE ARE THREE RACES GOING ON (and NONE of them are political)!
One race is the competition for your soul! You don't even know that you're in THIS race! The "default position," in this competition is that the devil already owns your soul, unless you have made the selection to choose Jesus Christ.
The second race is for self identity! Here your race has nothing to do with spirituality, but it's all about YOURSELF! Earmarks of this race are taking LOTS of, "selfies," admiring yourself constantly in the mirror, and thinking about you as "Number One"! (This was Lucifer's problem. As you remember, he WAS the "anointed cherub that covered God's throne! Now that he's judged, he is called, Satan!)
Hopefully, you're in NEITHER of these first two races but in this third competition! You enter THIS race the moment that you trust and believe the gospel of your salvation (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Briefly, summed up, you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross, paying for your sins. He was buried, but three days later He arose from the grave according to the scriptures!
THEN you asked God to forgive you of your sins for which He had to die, and you received Jesus Christ as your LORD and Saviour! Every truly repentant sinner who believes this gospel is saved! (Acts 16:30-31.)
Here are our instructions as Christ followers! (That's what "Christian" means!)
Hebrews 12:1 "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,"
That race is no longer for your soul, nor for your self identity, but for an incorruptible prize, one that will NEVER perish!
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25. 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. 26. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."
We're NOT in the race to win first place! We're simply to FINISH!
Keeping our body under control is how this race is run! It's about keeping that faith given to us at the moment of our salvation! It's about staying on course, even though we get tired!
2 Timothy 4:7-8 "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."
Let me remind you, the goal of any Christian is to finish the race! First place is NOT the goal, but to FINISH the course and to hear these words from our LORD!
Matthew 25:21 "His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."
With the finish line so close, don't quit the race early! (AND if you have already quit, run back into it! There's STILL a little bit of time left!)
Remember, we're ambassadors for God Almighty!
2 Corinthians 5:20 "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
As 2020 comes to an end, don't start 2021 with useless resolutions, but with again pledging your devotion to serve your Lord Jesus Christ!
Keep running your race for the Saviour of your eternal soul.
We can see the finishing line approaching!
