Running With Perseverance

There are many people who think that after they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior that life will get easier, but that is not the case.  Life can actually become more difficult when we place our faith in Christ.  Our families and friends may distance themselves from us and we may face severe persecution.  We may also encounter spiritual attacks from our enemy, the devil.

The Christian walk is like a race.  When someone runs in a race they must first enter into the race and we enter into this race when we come to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  We must continue life's journey growing in our faith and we do that by reading the Bible.  We need to be studying the Bible as well.  We must pray and worship the Lord in Spirit and Truth.  We need to walk in the Spirit and walk by faith with our focus on the Lord.

We must not give up.  We must continue running our race of faith.  The Lord will help us through the power of the Holy Spirit that indwells everyone who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the Cross.

I like what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12:1-2,

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud
of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders us and
the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance
the race marked out for us.

Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter
of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross,
scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

There have been many believers that have run the race of faith in Christ before we came on the scene and we need to learn from their examples.   We must cast off those things that will hinder us as we run our race here on the earth.  We need to cast off those sins that so easily trip us up and make us ineffective. 

We must fix our eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ and remember that it is He that we are serving.  Jesus paid the penalty of our sin for us by dying on the Cross in our place.  Jesus is our Savior and our Redeemer.  We are saved by Grace by placing our faith in His finished work on the Cross.

Let us not give up, but let's persevere and keep our focus on the Lord Jesus.

Lord,

Thank You for this day.

Help us to run our race of faith with perseverance with our focus on the Lord Jesus.

We praise Your Name O Lord.

Come Soon Lord Jesus.

In Jesus Name we pray,

Amen.