[x_custom_headline type=”left” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″]I like racing! And I especially like stock car racing. I realize that not everybody does, but I also know that many who do not simply don’t understand all that is going on. However, regardless of who you are, and whether you like racing or not, you surely know that the first person to cross the finish line at the end of the race and take the checkered flag, is the winner.[/x_custom_headline]
The Holy Spirit inspired the writer of the book of Hebrews to let all believers know that they were in a race. To be clear, we are not racing against one another, but there are things that God has appointed for each of us to do and to receive that we will never obtain if we do not do what is necessary to run our race to win.
[x_blockquote cite=”Hebrews 12:1 AMP” type=”left”]“THEREFORE THEN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,”[/x_blockquote]
The Lord fully intends for us to follow the directives the Holy Spirit lays out in this verse. But what I have witnessed in nearly four decades of ministry to God’s people, is that many of them are so hesitant to do what the Bible says to do that they are already ten laps down.
Time is short! And everyone of us are running out of time to do and obtain all that God intends for us to have and to do before the rapture of the Church. But because of constant procrastination in the lives of believers, and with excuse after excuse for why they put off obeying God and following Him fully, it becomes more and more unlikely that the plan and purposes of God for their lives, which obviously includes their marriage, their family, the business and career, as well as their assignments in the Kingdom of God, will ever completely come to pass.
And to be clear, it is wasted time, not other people in the race, that is putting them so many laps down.
[x_blockquote cite=”2 Corinthians 5:10 AMP” type=”left”]“For we must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive [his pay] according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil [considering what his purpose and motive have been, and what he has achieved, been busy with, and given himself and his attention to accomplishing].”[/x_blockquote]
Just imagine standing before the Judgment Seat of Christ while He reveals to you all that you could have had and all that you could have done. But instead you forfeited all of it by being slow to believe the Word of God, and slow to act on it.
So what are you giving your attention to? And what exactly is it in your life that hinders you from being a sold-out Christian, who is fully dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ? Or maybe even a better question you should ask yourself is: who is it in my life that I am allowing to hinder me from fully following and obeying Jesus?
[x_blockquote cite=”Galatians 5:7 AMP” type=”left”]“You were running the race nobly. Who has interfered in (hindered and stopped you from) your heeding and following the Truth?”[/x_blockquote]
Sometimes wrong relationships are what hinders people from obeying God. So if that is the case with you, and if you find yourself getting off course, you need to examine this area of your life and be open and honest with the Lord, and allow Him to help you get this right, immediately.
I will admit that running this race with achieving the victory in mind will require a certain level of discipline. However, consider the sweetness of victory in your health, in your home, in your finances, and in what the Lord has given you to do in His House and His Kingdom, before you shake your head in the negative, and decide to sit back down in the place of defeat.
And while you are thinking on this, consider the pain and misery and heartaches that come from allowing the devil to bring havoc into your marriage, family, health and more. Just that alone should motivate you to stop procrastinating and get up and obey God.
[x_blockquote cite=”1 Corinthians 9:24b-26 AMP” type=”left”]“So run [your race] that you may lay hold [of the prize] and make it yours. 25 Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things. They do it to win a wreath that will soon wither, but we [do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness] that cannot wither. 26 Therefore I do not run uncertainly (without definite aim). I do not box like one beating the air and striking without an adversary.”[/x_blockquote]
Decide today to run to win even if you find yourself ten laps down, or even more for that matter. Begin today running the race the way God intended you to. Don’t waste another day and put off until some other time what the Lord Jesus wants in your life right now.
