“I returned and saw under the sun that — the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

IT WOULD BE AN INTERESTING EXERCISE TO TRY TO PREDICT WHO WILL AND WHO WILL NOT MAKE IT TO HEAVEN. Of the people you know, for example, who are the ones who will see God’s face in His eternal kingdom? Whatever criteria you used to make such a forecast, there’s a good chance that many of your predictions wouldn’t come true. It’s an obvious fact in this world: we are often SURPRISED at how people’s spiritual lives turn out. Some whom we think are bound to remain faithful to the Lord turn out to be little more than disappointments, while others we had little hope for end up being the most faithful. THE RACE IS NOT TO THE SWIFT!

The reason predictions of any kind are hard is that life is full of UNEXPECTED TURNS OF EVENTS. As far as people’s spiritual lives are concerned, God is able to bring into play factors that we could never have foreseen but which totally change the outcome. He never overrides anyone’s freedom of will, but He certainly does intervene providentially in ways that produce surprising results.

But if the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, what does that mean? What should be our attitude about that fact?

First, we need to put away our “crystal balls.” Especially when we’re trying to influence someone who seems to be a “hopeless case,” we need to allow that things may turn out better than we think they will. We should just go ahead and do whatever is right today, and let the future turn out to be whatever it will.

But second, we need to quit thinking that everything depends on us. We need to leave more room in our calculations for GOD to do what HE can do. Any time God is involved, “it ain’t over till it’s over,” and many more good things may turn up than we, or anyone else, could have produced or predicted. The race may look like it’s lost, but still be won — despite our lack of swiftness.

“The disillusionment with our own abilities is, perhaps, one of the most important things that can ever happen to us” (Tim Hansel).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“All this has come upon us; but we have not forgotten You, nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from Your way” (Psalm 44:17,18).

HOLDING TRUE TO OUR COMMITMENT TO GOD IS EASIER AT SOME TIMES THAN AT OTHERS. On some days, the wind is at our back, helping us to go in the right direction, but on other days, the wind blows fiercely in our face, making it awfully tempting to turn back. But we can’t keep our commitment to God just when it’s easy. In fact, when remaining faithful is hard, that’s when it’s ESPECIALLY important to stay the course. We may be afflicted, persecuted, or even chastened with hardship by God Himself, but come what may, we must be people whose hearts don’t turn back.

To live is to be moving. On any day, we’re always going to be “going” one direction or another. It’s important, then, to keep from going backward. We may not be making as much forward progress as we’d like, and at times it may seem that we’re standing still. But at least we can determine not to go backward.

All of us, of course, are TEMPTED to turn back. There is not a one of us who hasn’t (at least secretly) given some thought to throwing our faith away and just living like the world. Jesus may have thought about it on other occasions as well, but in Gethsemane, He certainly thought about turning back. In His prayer, He confessed to WANTING to turn back . . . but He made the choice to go forward. And like our Lord, we need to go forward toward God with a passion and a determination that SIMPLY WILL NOT BE DENIED!

When a decision has to be made whether to follow God or turn back, it’s important not to let that decision be made by our feelings alone. As good and valuable as our feelings may be (they were given to us by God), they are, by themselves, no true test of what God wants us to do. And mark it well: OUR FEELINGS ARE NO TEST OF WHETHER GOD IS “NEAR” US OR NOT. At all times, God is certainly with us, supporting us and helping us to do what is right, whether it feels that way or not. And so, in darkness, doubt, and difficulty, we need to hang on to our faith and simply REFUSE to turn back.

“In times of dryness and desolation we must be patient and wait with resignation the return of consolation, putting our trust in the goodness of God. We must animate ourselves by the thought . . . that we have not necessarily lost his grace because we have lost the taste and feeling of it” (Ignatius of Loyola).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:5).

TO BE A CHRISTIAN IS TO BE A PERSON UNDERGOING A GREAT CHANGE. What we are today is not what we will have become tomorrow — and each day after that, until our lives are done. We are creatures in the act of “becoming.” As Paul wrote, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). We have already died to our old selves, but what we shall be “in the likeness of His resurrection” is not yet fully known. Only time will tell.

In nature, we’re familiar with the metamorphosis by which, for instance, a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. The astonishing thing about this process is the RADICAL DIFFERENCE between the caterpillar and the butterfly. Who could have predicted such a change?

But metamorphosis in the spiritual realm is different than that in the physical realm in that it involves the freedom of the will of those who are being transformed. A caterpillar doesn’t have any say in what kind of butterfly he’ll turn out to be, but we do have a say in what we become. In fact, it’s by our choice that we determine whether we will be transformed into glorious beings (partaking of the divine nature) or horrible monsters (partaking of nothing but the corruption that comes from death and decay).

Life in God is what has aptly been called the Great Adventure. No small part of this adventure is the joy of seeing ourselves unfold and develop into fully mature persons. What right-thinking person can fail to be excited about being transformed in this way?

When what we “are” frustrates us, we shouldn’t give up on ourselves. One day, we will be glorious creatures, but we’re not there yet. And even in this life, few of us have yet matured into the persons that others will remember us as being after we’re gone. The most that can be said is that we’re BECOMING the persons we were created to be. But that is saying quite a lot! In God, both the destination and the journey are things to be thankful for. Let’s not fail to appreciate the awesome PROCESS that we’re in the middle of.

“People become who they are. Even Beethoven had to become Beethoven” (Randy Newman).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

“So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her” (Genesis 29:20).

ATTITUDES LIKE LOVE AND HOPE CAN SHORTEN WHAT OTHERWISE MIGHT SEEM LIKE A LONG TIME. Although time passes at exactly the same rate every day, the passage of time can feel shorter if our hearts are filled with the anticipation of something very good. So for the joy of being married to Rachel, Jacob gladly endured his servitude to Laban for seven years: “. . . they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her.”

As we live and wait for the Lord’s return, the passage of time will seem much shorter if we live out our sojourn in HOPE. It may, in fact, be many days until we see Him, but if our heart is where it needs to be, it will only seem to be a few days. As the familiar old hymn put it, “Just a few more days to be filled with praise, / And to tell the old, old story; / Then, when twilight falls, and my Savior calls, / I shall go to Him in glory” (Charles H. Gabriel).

Jesus promised to come back and take His faithful people to heaven (John 14:1-3; Acts 1:9-11). He did not tell His disciples then, and the Bible does not tell us now, that His return is imminent (1 Thessalonians 5:1,2). But listen: the Bible DOES teach that we are to live AS IF CHRIST’S RETURN WERE IMMINENT . . . because it very well may be! There is no day, then or now, when the Lord is not “at hand” (Philippians 4:5), and we are taught to live every single day of our lives in the expectation of seeing Him return. IT COULD BE TODAY!

Peter wrote that we are to “look for” and “hasten” the coming of the day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:12). That means that we are to think of it lovingly and hopefully, just as Jacob would have “hastened” the coming of the day when he could marry Rachel.

But if hope shortens the time of our waiting for the Lord, it also turns it into a time of JOY. We are not merely to endure the days of our waiting but to go so far as to ENJOY them. It was to a church that had as many hardships as anybody else that Paul wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! . . . The Lord is at hand” (Philippians 4:4,5). This is the Lord “whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, YOU REJOICE WITH JOY INEXPRESSIBLE” (1 Peter 1:8).

“He that lives in hope dances without a fiddle” (Anonymous).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com