“My Spirit is not with you.” I pray for you often.
Please turn to Hebrews 10, beginning with verses 37 through 39.
For yet a very little while,
He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry.
But My righteous one shall live by faith:
And if he shrink back, My soul hath no pleasure in him.
But we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition;
But of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul.
Then Hebrews 11:39-40:
And these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not the promise,
God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
And Hebrews 12:1-13:
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
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 perfecter of our faith,
Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame,
And hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.For consider Him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against Himself,
That ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls.
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin:
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons,
My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord,
Nor faint when thou art reproved of Him;
For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons;
For what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?
But if ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers,
Then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence:
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them;
But He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous;
Yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.
Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied knees;
And make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame be not turned out of the way, but rather be healed.
The prophet Habakkuk lived at a time when the nation of Israel was about to be destroyed. As he looked around, he saw the wickedness of his own people. He wondered why God did not judge His own people. The wicked seemed to prosper, and the righteous seemed to suffer.
So he cried to the Lord and asked, “Why is it that the Lord does not do something?”
He was told that the Lord was going to raise up the Chaldeans and use that nation to chasten and judge the nation of Israel.
When Habakkuk heard that, it threw him into even greater confusion. He cried to the Lord, “Lord, how could You use a nation more wicked than Israel to punish Israel?” So he was completely confused.
He stood upon his watch, waiting and looking for the Lord to explain the whole situation. Then he was given a vision, and with that vision came a word:
The righteous shall live by his faith.
This word, this refrain, was taken up in the New Testament. As a matter of fact, you find three books in the New Testament dealing with this matter: the righteous shall live by faith.
Romans quotes this verse: “The righteous shall live by faith.” In Romans, the emphasis is upon the righteous. Who are the righteous? How can we be justified?
Then the same writer takes up the refrain in Galatians: “The righteous shall live by faith.” There the emphasis is upon faith. How shall the righteous live? By faith.
Then the writer to the Hebrews takes up the refrain: “The righteous shall live by faith.” But there the emphasis is upon live. The righteous shall live by faith.
So altogether, these three books in the New Testament explain this matter of the righteous living by faith.
Who are the righteous? No one is righteous in himself. There is no righteous person before God. But he who is justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ, he who is redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord, he who is saved—he is righteous in the sight of God.
So, in a sense, thank God, we are the righteous—not because we are better than anybody else, but because we have been justified by God Himself.
Not only are we justified, as if we had never sinned, but we are accepted in the Beloved. When God looks upon us, He does not see us; He sees Christ. We are clothed with Christ, our righteousness. So thank God, we are the righteous.
But that is not the end. The righteous shall live. In other words, we who have been justified and redeemed are living on earth today. We live daily. We are not out of the world yet.
Thank God, one day we will be out of this wicked and perverse generation. But we are still in this world. How does God expect the righteous to live? How are we able to live as the righteous in an unrighteous world?
The answer is faith. That is the only way the righteous can live in this world: by faith.
Why? Because if we live by sight—if we look around, if we look at ourselves, or if we look at each other—we will stumble. We will faint. We will grow weary. We will become discouraged.
Habakkuk, as it were, was warned by God: “You are living by sight. You see the wicked among Israel oppressing the righteous. You see God raising up a more wicked nation to punish a nation that is somewhat more righteous. When you try to live by sight, you are confused.”
The only way you can live is by faith.
Faith is that which substantiates the things hoped for and proves the things not seen. There are things hoped for, and there are things unseen. Faith has the ability to bring the things that are unseen—the things that are in the future, as it were—into the present.
Because of this, you are able to live above all circumstances, even above yourself. Faith penetrates the clouds of darkness and sees the sun shining. Faith allows us to see God through all things. We can see what God is doing and what He is going to do.
Because of this, we are able to live in this unjust, perverse, and wicked world.
The Scripture tells us that we are all in a race. It is a race of faith.
The moment you believe in the Lord Jesus, the moment you are justified, you are placed in that race. You cannot separate your Christian life from being a runner in the race of faith. This is something God has ordained and appointed.
Whether you like it or not, the moment you are justified, you are placed in that race. You are supposed to run—to run the course of faith.
The question is not whether you are in the race. The question is whether you are running well, whether you are standing still, or whether you are drawing back. Nevertheless, every one of us is in that race.
This race is a running contest. It is a marathon, and it is an obstacle race. We are not supposed merely to stand still or to walk leisurely, strolling through life. We are runners. We are all supposed to run that race of faith.
Many have run before us. In Hebrews 11, we find all these people of faith in Old Testament times. They ran this race of faith before us. They finished their course. They received witness from God that they had run well. Now it is our turn.
Notice in Hebrews 12:1 that little word, “also”: “Let us also therefore.” After the writer shows us all these runners in Old Testament times—how they ran well, finished their course, and received witness from God—he says, “Let us also therefore.”
There is a most wonderful thing in a contest or race. It is true that every individual has to perform and try to win. But at the same time, the winning is more than an individual matter. Sometimes it is a group matter, a team matter, a corporate matter.
Not only must each individual try to win, but when the final account is made, all the individuals are considered together to see whether that team wins or whether that group wins. This is the way it is in this spiritual race.
The saints in Old Testament times ran, and they ran well. As the Bible says:
And these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not the promise,
God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
They obtained witness through faith. God bore witness to every one of them, but they did not receive the promise. Why? Because they could not be made perfect without us. It is a team matter. It is a group matter. It is a corporate matter.
So, dear brothers and sisters, remember this: we are all in the race of faith, and we must run to win—not only for ourselves. How we run has much to do with all our brothers and sisters, because they cannot be made complete without us.
The holy city, the New Jerusalem, will not come down from heaven until all the runners have arrived. Then we receive the promise.
How important it is for us to understand this. Dear brothers and sisters, life is not static. It is not passive. It is running. And when you think of running, it is strenuous. It is intense. It is something into which you put your whole effort, stretching yourself even beyond yourself.
That is the way to run. Brothers and sisters, remember: the righteous shall live by faith. We are in that race. We are running.
We cannot expect others to run while we are carried along as passengers. That will never happen.
First of all, I would like to impress upon you, dear brothers and sisters, that we who are the righteous—the justified—are here in a race. We are here running. We are not merely sitting and waiting to die and go to heaven. No. We are here to run. We must apply our whole selves to this race.
Now, how do you run? Living and running are the same thing. Faith is not merely something spoken; faith is something demonstrated.
Oftentimes, we think that Paul is the apostle of faith because he tells us about justification by faith. Then we say that James talks about works, so surely he is not an apostle of faith.
Even Martin Luther considered the letter to the Galatians as his wife. He said, “Galatians is my Catherine.” He used Galatians as the banner for the Reformation. But when he read James, he could not understand it. He called it an epistle of straw, something you could not use to fight with.
But he was mistaken. The Apostle James was not the brother of John; he was actually the brother in the flesh of our Lord Jesus. James was also an apostle of faith, but he emphasized the other side of faith.
Faith has two sides. On the one side, it is believing; on the other side, it is working. Sometimes we emphasize believing and neglect working. At other times, we emphasize working and forget believing.
If you believe, your faith must be proven by your works. Otherwise, your faith is dead; it is not real. If you are working, you have to work by faith. Otherwise, it is dead works—works done by dead persons—and something of which we need to repent.
Faith has two sides. On the one hand, we need to believe that God is and that He is the rewarder of those who seek after Him. On the other hand, if we really believe, works will be produced and manifested to prove that our faith is genuine.
Notice all these men and women of faith. They ran the race. For instance, by faith Abel offered a better sacrifice.
In no way was Abel a better man than Cain. They were both children of Adam. But Abel, by faith, offered a better sacrifice. He offered a lamb with bloodshed, acknowledging that he was a sinner and accepting God’s provision of salvation.
Cain offered the produce of the land—the best of his own labor. He thought that he himself, and his labor, were good enough to be accepted by God. He refused to acknowledge himself as a sinner. He rejected God’s provision of salvation. He tried to save himself and to approach God by his own efforts.
Cain was a person without faith, and he was rejected. But Abel offered a better sacrifice, and he was accepted by God. His sacrifice was excellent. Even though he had to suffer for his faith, he was murdered by his brother out of envy.
Yet even though he died, he still speaks. Sometimes we think that Abel’s blood speaks out of the ground for revenge. That is true. But I believe there is something else that he still speaks.
Even today, when we mention Abel, we still hear his voice. His voice is this: “Acceptance comes through faith in the blood of the Lamb.” That is what he is still speaking.
Then you find Enoch. Enoch lived in a generation when people had become very worldly. He was no different from the others until he was sixty-five years old. Then something happened: a child was born.
Evidently, when that child was born, a revelation was given to Enoch, because on the day that Methuselah died, the flood came. Evidently, Enoch received a revelation. He had been a careless, worldly person, just like anybody else.
But with the birth of the child, he was warned by God of the coming judgment, and he began to walk with God for three hundred years.
Do not think that walking with God is easy. Oftentimes we want God to walk with us, to go where we want to go, and then we call that walking with God. But if you walk with God, you must go with Him wherever He goes.
To walk with God, you have to be under His direction. You have to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him. It is not easy. But by faith, Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and God took him.
He demonstrated his faith by walking. His faith was honored in two ways: first, he was taken alive without death; second, his son Methuselah died, and then the flood came.
But see the longsuffering of God. Of all the people living in this world, Methuselah lived the longest—969 years. This shows the longsuffering of God.
Then Noah, by faith, kept building the ark. He received a revelation from God that God was going to destroy the earth with a flood.
Dear brothers and sisters, you must remember that at that time there had not even been rain. In the early days, there was only a mist that watered the earth and caused the plants to grow. There had never been rain.
There was no boat, and Noah was the first one to build an ark. It was not a boat for sailing; it was a boat for floating. Even today, shipbuilding engineers who analyze the dimensions given to Noah acknowledge that, for floating purposes, it was perfect.
During the 120 years that Noah was building that ship on dry land, he was mocked by his generation. “Why are you doing this?” He told them, “The flood is coming.” Nobody believed him because they had never seen rain.
But by faith he built the ark. He saved not only himself, but his whole family. He became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Noah demonstrated faith.
Then, of course, Abraham. Abraham lived in Ur of the Chaldeans. Ur has been excavated, and they have found that it was a city of idols. Tradition tells us that Abraham’s father, Terah, was actually an idol maker.
So Abraham was brought up in that kind of environment. During that time, even the descendants of Seth, the so-called godly seed, had become mixed with the ungodly.
But the God of glory appeared to Abraham, and by faith he departed from his own land and from his own kindred. He went forward to the place which God would give him, not knowing where he was going.
By faith, he believed God. Even after he arrived in the promised land, he lived there throughout his life as a stranger and pilgrim, trusting God that the land was promised to him and to his seed, as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea.
By faith, he even offered his only son, Isaac, in whom all the promises of God to him would be fulfilled. He was willing to offer his only son to God, proving his utter devotedness and complete faith in God, knowing that God was able to raise his son from the dead.
This is faith. This is the way to live. This is the way to run the race.
Then, of course, Moses. Moses was miraculously preserved. He was brought up in Pharaoh’s household and learned all the wisdom of Egypt.
When he was forty years old, he began to realize that God had a divine destiny for him. He went to see his brothers. He tried to save them by his own strength and ability, but he failed.
He fled to the desert, and there he was for forty years, unlearning what he had learned in Egypt and learning God—learning to know God. When he was eighty years old, God sent him back to deliver the children of Israel.
By faith, he brought the children of Israel through the wilderness to the border of the promised land. If you read on in Hebrews 11, you find that many others ran the race and finished their course.
The striking thing is that their outward circumstances were so different. Some, by faith, conquered kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, became strong from weakness, became mighty in war, and caused armies of strangers to flee. Women received their dead by resurrection. Glorious!
They ran. They overcame obstacles. They achieved great things for God.
But then others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others endured mockings and scourgings, bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, slain with the sword, and went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and ill-treated. They wandered in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes of the earth.
These people also ran, and they finished their course. Outwardly, they suffered. They were tortured. They died. They were cut asunder. They were killed. They wandered in the wilderness and hid in caves. Yet God bore witness to them that they had done well and had finished the course.
So you cannot judge by the outward situation. You have to live by faith. If you live by faith, then you will receive witness from God that you have run well and finished the course.
Dear brothers and sisters, these men and women of God ran. They finished. They won. They received witness from God. Now it is our turn.
How are you running? How can we run this race and run well?
In Hebrews 12, we find several things mentioned. But before we come to them, there are two things I would like to point out. We who are running today are more privileged than those who ran before us.
Why? Because those who ran before us did not have the cloud of witnesses surrounding them. Abel was the first one to run. There was no one there to encourage him, no one to cheer him on, and no one to set a precedent for him to follow. Yet he did well.
Today is different. Today we are running, and we have a cloud of witnesses surrounding us—those who ran, finished, and won. They are there as witnesses.
They are not spectators, as though they are merely looking at us. No, they are witnesses. These men and women stand before us as witnesses that it was not in vain for them to run this race of faith. That should encourage us. We have precedents, examples, and proofs.
But better than all these witnesses, we have our Lord Jesus. He came down from heaven to run this race of faith, and He finished that race.
Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame,
And hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Here we find our Lord Jesus. He ran, and He finished. He endured the cross, despising all the shame. Today He is seated at the right hand of the throne.
The other witnesses and our Lord Jesus all encourage us. But our Lord Jesus does something more than all the witnesses can do. He is not merely set before us as a witness or example; actually, He is still running in us.
That is the wonderful thing. In Old Testament times, the Lord may have run alongside those men and women. But today is different. When we are running, it is the Lord Himself who runs in us. He is our life, and He is running in us.
It is He who runs in you and in me. Do you need to doubt that you will finish? Do you need to faint? No. Why? Because He has already won, and this life that has won is in you. It is this life that enables us to press on to perfection, that is, to maturity.
Sometimes, when you run, you feel that you are all alone. It is true—you may feel alone, as though you have to struggle by yourself.
This running is not only a marathon, a long race that lasts a lifetime. It is also an obstacle race. You find obstacles everywhere. It is a conflict, a conflict of natures. Often you feel as though you are alone. But you are not alone.
Sometimes, when a husband is running, he may feel that his wife is not with him. Or when the wife is running, she may feel that her husband is not with her. Even if you are all running together, there will be situations in which you feel alone. But you are not alone.
Christ is there. He is running. He is pushing you. He is drawing you forward. Thank God, we are in a privileged position.
How do we run this race? First of all, we lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us. Before we run, we have to lay aside every weight, every burden, and the thing that so easily entangles us.
The writer uses the Olympic games as the background. In the old days, when the Olympic games first began in Greece, before you could run, you had to prove your citizenship. At the beginning, only Greeks could participate. Later the Romans began to participate, and the games opened up. But at first, only Greeks could enter.
You had to show your citizenship before you were allowed to enter the contest. Spiritually speaking, this is true. In the race of faith, you must show your citizenship—your certificate that you are really born again, that you are in the faith, and that you have believed in the Lord Jesus. Because you are in the faith, you are allowed to enter the race.
We are also told that before a man could participate in the Olympic games, after showing his certificate, he would be set aside for months of special training under strict discipline. There was a rigid schedule for rising, sleeping, eating, and prescribed exercise. He had to go through all these things before he could enter the contest.
Then, when he entered the contest, whether it was running or another sport, he had to lay aside every weight. He had to strip himself so that there would be no weight upon him.
Some versions may say “burden.” It is the same thing. If there is a burden, there is weight. In order to run well, you have to lay it aside before you start.
What is a weight or burden? A weight or burden is not necessarily a sin.
Oftentimes, when I meet young Christians, they ask a question. They want to do certain things, and they do not know whether they can do them. So they ask, “Brother, is this a sin?” In other words, if you say it is not a sin, they think it is all right and they can do it.
But that is not the real question. If you are running, it is more than a matter of whether something is sin or not. The question is: Is it a weight? Is it a burden?
A burden or weight may not be sinful. It may be legitimate. It may be all right in ordinary life. But when you are running, it becomes a problem. Many things are legitimate, but they can become weights and burdens in your life. They will slow you down.
For instance, the cares of life can become a burden or weight. Of course, we live in this world, and we have to care. I believe that Christians need to be careful. There are things in life that we have to take care of.
But the cares of life can become a weight or burden. In Luke 21, it says:
But take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life,
And that day come upon you suddenly as a snare.
The cares of this life can burden us down so that we are not able to expect the Lord. When the Lord calls us to go, we are so weighed down that we cannot be ready.
This does not mean that we should be careless. We should provide for our families. We should do all the things that are needed. But sometimes these things become a burden when you overdo them or overthink them.
The cares of this life—what to eat, what to drink, what to wear—can begin to occupy us. Of course we have to eat, drink, and be clothed. As God gives us grace, we should make provision for these things, and our heavenly Father will provide for us. We need to work for these things. That is good and proper.
But sometimes, even though we are Christians, we begin to lose sight of our heavenly Father. We begin to think that we have to carry everything in our own minds. The cares of life become such a burden that they slow us down, and we cannot run anymore. We need to be careful about this.
Sometimes claims upon us can become a burden. Of course, many of these claims are legitimate.
There are claims upon our time. If you work in an office, factory, or whatever work you may do, there is a claim upon your time. We have to work faithfully and as unto the Lord. That is true.
In modern life, the claims upon our time are tremendous. I do not mean that you can ignore these claims; they are legitimate. But sometimes they can be false, and sometimes they can be overdone.
A Christian can become so locked down by all these claims that he has absolutely no time for the Lord—no time to deal with the Lord in daily life, no time to read the Bible, no time to pray, no time to be quiet before the Lord, no time to be together with God’s people, and no time to serve Him in any way. All the time is occupied. No time.
That can be a burden. That can be a weight.
Duty, of course, is something we must do. We need to do our duty as unto the Lord. But sometimes duty can become a weight when it is overdone. You may think it is your duty, while neglecting your duty to God.
This is a very fine and delicate matter. Nobody can decide for you what is a weight and what is legitimate. How are you going to see the difference?
If your heart is given to God, then your mind is renewed, and you will have the sensitivity to see the fine line. If you are merely trying to figure things out, you will not be able to do it, because many things are legitimate.
It is only when your heart is occupied with God. As one brother said, “Your heart is an occupied area.” In other words, if your heart is really occupied with God, then He will give you the wisdom to discern and judge how much and how far in each case.
He will show you what claim may properly be made upon your time, energy, and strength; how much care you need to take; and how much care you need to let your heavenly Father take. He will give you discernment.
The weight has to be laid aside so that we can run.
We must also lay aside the sin that so easily entangles us. In the Greek original, the word is singular: the sin. As you read the book of Hebrews, this is the sin of unbelief.
There is no sin that can entangle us more than unbelief. If something entangles you, you cannot run; you will fall. The sin that easily entangles us is the sin of unbelief.
Think of the children of Israel. The reason they could not enter into the promised land was because of unbelief. This is something we must lay aside.
To lay aside means that you have to do something. You cannot merely wait and ask the Lord to take it away automatically. You have to lay it aside. You have to tell the Lord, “I am willing to lay this aside,” and then He will do it.
It is like the father whose son was demon-possessed. The disciples could not cast out the demon or heal his son. He came to the Lord and said, “Lord, if You can do anything, please help us.”
The Lord said, “If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth.” Then the man realized his unbelief. He had tried everything and everywhere. He had even tried the disciples, and they could not help him.
So he cried, “I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” This is the way to lay aside the sin that easily entangles us. We cry to the Lord and say, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief, that I may believe.”
With the weight and the sin that entangles us laid aside, we are able to run. Many believers are placed in that race after they are justified, but they have not run yet because they are already weighed down and entangled.
Let us lay aside every weight. The weight in your life may be different from the weight in mine, but we know that the Holy Spirit will show us. Let us lay aside the sin that easily entangles us.
We must run with endurance. This is not a hundred-meter dash. You are not a sprinter; you are a marathon runner. You have to run with patience and longsuffering.
Recently, there have been a number of marathons. As I read about the runners, I found that in the beginning, perhaps for the first five miles, they run with joy. But the more they run—after twenty miles, after twenty-six miles—something happens.
There comes a temptation to stop, to lie down, to give up, to withdraw. They have to force themselves. They literally suffer with every step until they finish the course.
Let us run with endurance. Brothers and sisters, this is the way Christians live. This is the way Christians run.
How false is our concept if we think that being a Christian is like riding on easy chairs or sailing smoothly through life. Not at all. Not at all.
We are in the race of faith, and our faith is contested. Our faith is tested and challenged. It has to be developed, strengthened, and perfected. It is a race. It is a marathon.
Brothers and sisters, do not be deceived by the idea that Christian life is an easy life. No, it is not. You have to endure beyond measure. That is the way.
How can you do it? How is a marathon runner, during the last few miles, able to overcome the pain and the temptation to give up and press on to the finish line? He is thinking of the finish line.
Brothers and sisters, in running the race of faith, how can we go on? If you look around, if you look at yourself, you are finished. You have to look unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.
In Greek, the word is very striking. It means to look away from everything and look unto the One who is the author and perfecter of faith.
You have to look away from everything. You only look at Jesus. He is the leader, and He is the finisher of faith. He not only leads us; He is able to enable us to finish.
It is not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit. You have to see the way clearly and remember that He is running in you.
Look away from everything and look unto Jesus. Just as a runner remembers the finish line, look at Him. Then you will be able to endure. Otherwise, you will not be able to endure, no matter how strong your will may be.
Then the Scripture says, “Consider Him.” As you look at Jesus, consider Him.
One thing to consider is that you have not yet resisted unto blood. Our Lord Jesus fought against sin even unto the shedding of His blood, and you have not come to that point yet. Are you willing even to shed your blood in order to finish?
It is a conflict. The enemy is out to stop you, slow you down, and push you back. You have to strive through all the assaults of the enemy.
As Revelation 12 says:
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb,
And because of the word of their testimony;
And they loved not their life even unto death.
Consider that. Think about it.
On the other hand, consider our heavenly Father. Not only do we have an enemy who is trying to hinder us; we have a heavenly Father who is using all these things to chasten us.
The word chastening in the Scripture means training. Remember that our heavenly Father is training us so that we may grow from children into sons. Remember this, and then we will not faint or despise His chastening. We will be able to press on.
Finally, the Scripture says, “Lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied knees.” When you are running and all your strength is exhausted, you droop. Your hands hang down, and your knees shake and fail.
But, dear brothers and sisters, after you have seen all these things—seen all these witnesses and seen our Lord Jesus—you can lift up your hands and straighten your knees.
Finally:
For yet a very little while,
He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry.
Brothers and sisters, we realize that we are actually at the end. The Lord is coming, and He that comes is coming soon and will not delay.
This is the last mile, as it were. This is the last hour. The last hour and the last mile are always the most difficult, but they are also the most promising. Why? Because the goal is near.
So do not draw back. The Lord says that if anyone draws back, His soul has no pleasure in him. Go on. Turn on. Press toward the goal and run the race that God has set before us.
The Apostle Paul said:
I have fought the good fight,
I have finished the course,
I have kept the faith:
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,
Which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day;
And not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing.
May this be our encouragement.
Dear heavenly Father, oh, how we do praise and thank You that You have justified us. You have appointed us to run this race of faith.
You have shown us that many before us have run and finished the course, and that You have borne witness to them that they pleased You.
Oh, how we praise and thank You that even Your beloved Son has won, and His life is in us, enabling us to run.
So, Father, we pray that You will encourage every one of us, that we may not stand still and that we may never draw back. By Your grace, may we lay aside every weight and every sin that besets us.
May we run with endurance. May we look unto Jesus. May we consider Him well. Lord, may we lift up our hands and straighten our feet.
Lord, we look forward to seeing You face to face and hearing these words: “Well done. Well done.” Without Your presence, we can do nothing.
Amen.