Race of Faith

Tuesday 4 August
READ: Heb. 12:1-4
MORE LESSON: 2Cor.5:10

We are all running a race in this life and the finishing line is at the judgment seat of Christ. There, every man will be rewarded for the way he ran his race. The essence of the race before us is not about who comes first, second, third place. It does not matter what time you arrive at the finishing line because no two persons start the race at the same time or on the same mark. We only have one finishing point. Whenever you arrive at the finishing line, you will be made to stand before the Chief Umpire and be assessed on your own merit. There are some peculiarities about this race.

1) We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses- a host of others who successfully ran the race and were commended. Some of these witnesses are those listed in Hebrews Chapter 11. So if you fail, it is not because you are the first to run this race or that you have no example to follow. Your failure will be because you did not run according to the rule. There are many others who ran the same race and succeeded.

2) Several things can easily distract, pre-occupy or frustrate a man's performance in this race. The Bible refers to them as weights and sins which easily ensnare. These include burdens, worries, anxieties, labour, daily runs that are natural but do not give you time to fellowship with God. Some may be abominable practices that the world system deliberately instituted to trouble, entangle, and ensnare believers. Examples include: institutional corruption, falsification of receipts, inflation of contract sums, sexual immorality, etc. Everyone in the race is confronted with weights and besetting sins, but you must lay them aside and run to finishing line. Jesus said all that labour and are heavy laden should come unto Him and lay their weights at the cross. You must do this if you want to run the race without excess baggage.

3) You must run this race with endurance, and the consciousness that you are in for a very long distance race along hills and valleys.

4) Keep your focus on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. He is the one who sets the starting and finishing points of the race. He is also the one that rewards. This same Jesus endured hostility and contradictions from sinful men without avenging Himself. His blood was shed that you may be free.

5) The race may cost you your blood. Be prepared to pour it as an offering if need be in the same way Apostle Paul testified of. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 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: 2Tim.4:6-8.

Prayer/Action
* Lord, help me to run my race to the finishing line and be celebrated by the cloud of witnesses.
* I denounce every known and unknown weight and sin that ensnare and prevents me from running well, in Jesus’ name.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
August 2015, you will respond to me positively and all the goodness in you shall be opened to me, in Jesus’ name.