Dear SCC & Friends,
…run with endurance… ~Hebrews 12:1
Reflection #209
The race is not always to the swift but to him who keeps on running. ~Alistair Begg~ …let us run with endurance the race that is set before us… ~Heb. 12:1 Whether we like it or not, we are all called to run… to lay hold of that for which we were created. Many years ago, I took the challenge to run in a marathon. The key to running a marathon is simply putting one foot in front of another for 26.2 miles. Even if you thoroughly train and feel prepared, it is not unusual to “hit the wall” somewhere around the 20-mile mark. It comes on like a bad cramp and has an inner voice… “You’re done, no mas, you can’t finish.” It is a test of endurance to press through “the wall”. I finished that day, and “the wall” is only a distant memory. The greatest moment of impasse often sets the stage for our greatest breakthrough. The race God has for us is not designed to be easy… If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?~Jer. 12:5 ~Selah~
In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins – not through strength but through perseverance.~Anon.~ It’s important to understand that the Lord has put us in this race, and like all races there is a starting point and finish line. The race is not an athletic competition but a spiritual metaphor of endurance and faith. The Lord’s grace sustains us in every phase of the race. The Apostle Paul ran to win… I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith… ~2 Tim. 4:7Winning is finishing the course He has set. The rules of the race remain constant in every generation. It is now our time to run… Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. ~Heb. 12:1He is with us always… Keep up the good work!
Running the race,
Kevin