It's not yet Party Time

Tuesday 21 March
READ: 1 Cor. 9:24-27
MORE LESSON: Heb. 12:1-4

If someone gets born again today, the devil immediately goes to work to strategise how to ensnare him. However, many times the church celebrates so much that we forget that getting born again is just the beginning of a very long journey to entering Heaven. The Bible likens the race of faith to athletics. Have you ever seen a sports person on the track celebrating before he wins the medal? If you start celebrating before you cross the finish line, someone might just push forward to breast the tape. There is simply no room for celebration till you cross the finish line.
The Christian life is a walk that continues until we meet God and you don't rest until you finish your course. Athletes don't stop or relax on track while running. The track is not a place to throw a party. You can do all the partying when the medal has been handed over to you. The focus and discipline must continue till the finish line. God's expectation is that you finish your race well. You have a responsibility to keep working on, no matter how much you think you have done and also to keep helping other people on the track to run their race to the finish.
This also applies in ministry; a man works for God and probably he has a congregation of one thousand people in a year and then believers start applauding so loud that if he is not careful he gets into pride and dies before his day. Believers celebrate starting like there is no finishing. However, be informed that only the end counts with the Lord, it is he who endures to the end that will be saved (Matt. 24: 13). When you are doing well and people start commending you, don't let that make you relent and everyone you have left behind now overtakes you.
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, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God: Heb 12:1-2. Keep looking at Jesus and keep pressing on till you reach the finish line. At the end of the race, God will throw a big party (marriage supper of the Lamb) for us. However, while you are here on earth, it is not yet party time.

Prayer/Action
* Lord, help me to run and finish well and strong like Paul, in Jesus’ name.
* I rebuke every obstacle on my way in the race of eternity, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
The Lord is my light and salvation, I shall not be afraid of any man, I shall triumph over every evil in the year, in the mighty name of Jesus.