Hearty congratulations to you this week. Well done for your determination in completing this week’s devotions. Let’s kindly recap what we have considered so far this week on the topic CONCENTRATE AND RUN YOUR RACE.
We discovered that Life as a Race is to live one’s life in an ethical, virtuous and spiritually fulfilling manner. However, Life is a SPECIAL RACE. Unlike an athletic competition, the Race for the Christian lasts a lifetime. Again, we saw that, to amount to anything in Christianity, demands discipline. A Christian cannot be successful without Character.
Moreover, the commonest enemy that fights against all athletes is DISTRACTION. This also affects all Christians as well, once you are distracted, you are less effective. This distraction to the Christian could include but not limited to unforgiveness, sexual immorality, bitterness, and prayerlessness. All these make you unproductive. The Christian, therefore, ought to avoid such a situation.
Furthermore, we saw men of faith who had significant character flaws; however, God used them in significant ways. We learnt that God is always willing to use the ordinary (Humans) to do the extraordinary once the ordinary (Humans) let Him.
Another point worth mentioning is that we need to employ certain disciplines to ensure that we stay on course. These include laying aside every weight, casting off sin, running with patience and looking unto Jesus.
Finally, we saw that it isn’t the size of the man, but the size of the heart in the man. The price of victory is high, and so are rewards. Of course, winners never quit, and quitters never win. Like Noah and Job with other faithful believers of Old, God is urging us on with their examples and their way of life so that we can be least distracted in this race and concentrate more on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
My concluding words are that my beloved, if there is something to live for, let’s choose to live wholly for the Lord in this life, giving our all to him, so we would be welcome back home with big applause once our life here is done. If there is a Hope that God has in this generation, then it is men and women who have a daily encounter with Him and have made it their ambition to please Him whether in public or in private. STAND UP AND BE COUNTED. GOD RICHLY BLESS YOU.