BETWEEN NOW AND THE TIME OF OUR DEPARTURE FROM THIS LIFE, THERE IS A “RACE” THAT HAS TO BE RUN. And frankly, the image of a race is mainly an image of pain. Anyone who has ever run a footrace of any distance knows that before the end finally comes, every muscle in the runner’s body cries out for relief. And the longer the race, the more tempting it is to simply quit running.

A GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES. When we run as God’s people, we are doing something that many, many others have done before us. And the writer of Hebrews describes those who’ve gone before as a “great cloud of witnesses,” a stadium full of supportive spectators cheering us onward with the hearty cry, “You can do it!”

LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT. In addition to supporters, we also happen to have a spiritual adversary whose purpose it is to defeat us. We must not let him have his way. The “sin which so easily ensnares us” must be laid aside. It’s a very simple matter. Either we decide to lay our sins aside, or they will be the undoing of us.

RUN WITH ENDURANCE. We are not in a sprint but a marathon. For all we know, it may be many years before the time comes for us to rest. But remember the “cloud of witnesses”? One of those witnesses is Paul, who wrote toward the end of his life, “I have finished the race” (2 Timothy 4:7). He did it, and we can do it too.

But there’s no chance we’ll do what Paul did if we’re not motivated by what motivated him: THE GLORIOUS PROSPECT OF BEING WITH CHRIST FOREVER. He said that he had sacrificed every worldly thing that ever mattered to him: “that I may gain Christ and be found in Him . . . that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11). Any goal less powerful than this will fail to keep us going. We must fix our hearts upon our Lord and determine that we are going to run the race, come whatever may. There can be no question or equivocation about it. So let us not merely study or think about running the race. LET US RUN THE RACE.

“To believe in heaven is not to run away from life; it is to run toward it” (Joseph D. Blinco).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

IF WE’RE HONEST, WE’LL ADMIT THAT WE SOMETIMES LOOK BACK AND LONG FOR THE WORLD THAT WE’VE BEEN DELIVERED FROM. Just as the people of Israel foolishly thought, once they were in the wilderness, that their lives had been better back in Egypt, so we may think that the difficulties of doing what’s right are too hard and that life was better back when we simply lived for the moment. It’s a fact that gaining freedom from slavery involves a good deal of danger and discomfort, whether the slavery is physical or spiritual. And we may think that although being a slave had its disadvantages, they were at least tolerable in comparison to the more grievous hardships of freedom. And so our old “comfort zone” calls us. It’s tempting to give up the struggle and go back.

On one occasion, when Jesus was impressing on His disciples the need for decisive action, He said, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32). In the act of escaping the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s wife perished, not for going back but simply for looking back.

On another occasion, Jesus said, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). We show ourselves unthankful and unworthy of the grace that has been granted to us if we look back from our work in the Lord and think that our lives were better before that work began.

Does this mean we should never even THINK about our pre-Christian past? No, but it does mean that we should reject that past decisively and never give the thought of going back a chance to get a grip on our minds. To the extent that thinking about the past helps motivate us to serve God more faithfully, then we should think about it. Paul, for example, seemed to work harder as an evangelist when he thought about his past (1 Corinthians 15:9,10). But if thinking about “Egypt” tempts us to go back there, even if it’s just in our hearts, then we must determine not to do it. After all, it is not backward but FORWARD that we are reaching.

“Shut out all of your past except that which will help you weather your tomorrows” (Sir William Osler).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

IF IT’S FORWARD THAT WE WANT TO MOVE, LOVE IS THE MOST POWERFUL THING TO PROPEL US IN THAT DIRECTION. As a motivator, love really has no equal. It’s “as strong as death.” It burns with a flame that “many waters cannot quench.” If someone you know is trying to do something and love is the reason why, you’d be wise to get out of the way. The thing is very likely going to happen.

Wouldn’t we reach forward more fervently in life if our love for God were more affectionate? If the word “passion” accurately described our love for God, could anything hold us back? For too long, most of us have loved God too little and with too little fire.

The love that we so desperately need in our relationship to God is a thing that we can choose to have. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind (Matthew 22:37), and that is a command we are capable of obeying. We can choose to think rightly about God, and then we can feed our minds on the truths that He has revealed about Himself in the Scriptures. When we do that with the genuine intent to be what He created us to be, we will find ourselves loving Him, adoring Him, and longing to be with Him now and forever.

It is no mere happenstance that God ordained the Lord’s Supper for His people. Of all the things that can feed our love, none is more powerful than meditating, with other Christians, on the staggering, unfathomable love shown at the cross of Christ.

The world, the flesh, and the devil must be FOUGHT. But the simple fact is, we fight a losing battle if love is left out of the mix. If we don’t have the help of our HEARTS in serving God, it’s not likely that we’ll hold out to the end. So, my friend, it is imperative that your activities be motivated by love, first for God and second for your neighbor. If that’s the case (and God certainly knows whether it is or not), then discouragement will not defeat you. Other motives may falter, but “many waters cannot quench love.”

“Love can hope where reason would despair” (Lord George Lyttelton).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

THERE IS NO AVOIDING OUR FUTURE APPOINTMENT TO BE JUDGED BY THE GOD WHO MADE US. When our lives have finally run out, we will die. And when that happens, “the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” Having been created by God, our spirits will return to Him. We will give account of ourselves. It is inevitable.

WE ARE CREATURES, OR CREATED BEINGS. If we simply “happened” to exist as a result of merely physical processes, then at some point we would cease to exist. But we didn’t just happen to exist; we were CREATED, and it is to our Creator that we will return. Where we are going has more than a little to do with where we came from!

WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE TO OUR CREATOR. To be personal beings is a truly awe-inspiring fact. It means that we bear RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR ACTIONS. Freedom of the will is a marvelous gift, and the use of it is something that we shall have to answer for at the end of our lives. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

By far the most important question in life is whether, having returned to God, we will be allowed to REMAIN with Him. If we leave this life in a right relationship with God, we will hear Him say, “Enter into the joy of your lord” (Matthew 25:21). But if not, we will hear, “I never knew you; depart from Me” (Matthew 7:23).

Yet the anticipation of our return to God need not be fearful — it ought to be joyful. That prospect can’t be joyful if we spend the years of our sojourn here in selfish indulgence, disregarding the things of God, and in fact, it can’t be joyful if we simply live carelessly. But there is no reason why all of us can’t make the same deliberate choices that Paul did and be able to say what he said: “The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

“All days travel toward death, the last one reaches it” (Michel de Montaigne).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

NOTHING TESTS OUR CHARACTER ANY MORE THAN HAVING TO CHOOSE BETWEEN MOTIVES. When there is a good deed to be done, for example, our character is tested: will we do it simply to glorify God or will we do it “to be seen by men”? That is a hard choice — much harder than most of us are willing to admit.

Praise itself is not evil, of course, but there’s no denying that it has the potential to hurt us. Indeed, it’s a rare person who can receive more than a moderate amount of recognition and not have his or her attitude marred by it. That doesn’t stop us from wanting it, however. As Norman Vincent Peale once said, “Most of us would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”

As for our motives, it’s hard to be honest as to what they really are. The desire to be noticed and recognized as having done something good can be so subtle that it can be our real motive at times when we would say that it isn’t. In a given situation, it’s difficult to see when the thing that we really want is to be praised.

Perhaps it is stating it too strongly to say that we want “to be seen by men.” But what about that word “recognized”? A little appreciative attention is an intoxicating thing. Once we’ve experienced it, even as children, it’s easy for that to become the payoff that we seek (be truthful now) in every transaction thereafter.

The needs of self, including the need to be appreciated, are not unimportant, of course. But God has set up reality such that SELF’S NEEDS ARE SATISFIED MOST FULLY WHEN WE PUT OUR PRIORITIES ELSEWHERE. Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, AND ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED TO YOU” (Matthew 6:33).

So let’s be very honest. Why do we do what we do for God? Do we serve Him as faithfully in private as in public? If no one ever noticed or thanked us, would we be content simply to know that God had been glorified? And if so, would we then avoid the opposite sin: being privately smug, knowing that we are “big” enough to do what’s right even though nobody appreciates us?

“I cannot say ‘Thine is the glory’ if I am seeking my own glory first” (Anonymous).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

INTO EVERY LIFE SOME RAIN MUST FALL, AND EACH OF US HAS “SOWN” HIS SHARE OF TEARS. But God has made it possible that those who “sow in tears shall reap in joy.” We might wish the harvest time were already here, but that time is not yet. For all we know, it MAY be very near, and in fact, we are taught to live each day in the EXPECTATION of Christ’s return. But for now anyway, the harvest is still future. Rather than speculate or worry about the reasons for God’s delay of the harvest, we should enter willingly into these days of sowing, even if it is tears that must be sown. In the words of John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem, “Thine is the seed time: God alone / Beholds the end of what is sown; / Beyond our vision weak and dim / The harvest time is hid with him.”

It takes faith, of course, to hold on to the confidence that the sowing of tears will be followed by a reaping in joy. On many days, it certainly doesn’t seem like things are going to work out that way. But we must choose to have the attitude of Paul: “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:12).

If we’re “reaching forward to those things which are ahead” (Philippians 3:13), that means we’re “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2 Peter 3:12). For a while yet, THIS is the world where our work must be done and where, yes, our tears must be sown. But this world is not all there is. If we’ve obeyed the gospel of Christ and are living our lives in Him, then we’re moving toward a realm where our tears will give way to utter joy. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Beyond this vale of tears
There is a life above
Unmeasured by the flight of years
And all that life is love.
(James Montgomery)

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

IN AN AGE WHEN IT’S POPULAR FOR PEOPLE TO MAKE UP THEIR OWN SPIRITUALITY, IT’S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THE VITAL ROLE OF TRUTH. If God is an objective reality, then neither He Himself nor the path by which He may be approached are matters of subjective opinion. We are not at liberty (1) to set the terms of our own salvation or (2) to define anything as “worship” that tickles our fancy.

Yet this is the day of “feel good” religion. When it comes to God’s character, we envision Him in any way that is congenial to us, and when it comes to religious practice, we reject anything that does not stroke our self-image. Yet TRUTH is what we need, at all costs. Imagine yourself on the deck of the Titanic as it began to sink. It might have made you feel better to be told the ship wasn’t sinking and that everything was fine. But wouldn’t the TRUTH have been more valuable? As hard as it might have been to deal with reality, doing that would have been the only way to survive.

Spiritually, we are where we are right now because of “darkness.” The distorted versions of reality that our adversary has presented us with have darkened our understanding to such an extent that we’re incapable of finding our way back to God. The answer to David’s question, “Who can understand his errors?” (Psalm 19:12), is NO ONE — unless that person allows the light of God’s truth to dispel the darkness and reveal the way back home. Our prayer ought to be the same as William Cowper’s hymn: “O for a closer walk with God, / A calm and heavenly frame, / A light to shine upon the road / That leads me to the Lamb!”

It’s a wonderful truth that God can be known, and an even more wonderful truth that we can be redeemed from our sins and brought back to Him. But our redemption won’t be accomplished if we’re not willing to know God AS HE TRULY IS, and it’s primarily in the language of THE SCRIPTURES that He reveals Himself as He truly is. The only question is: what will we DO with this information?

“The sacred page is not meant to be the end, but only the means toward the end, which is knowing God himself” (A. W. Tozer).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

WHEN HEZEKIAH ERRED BY SHOWING ALL HIS TREASURES TO THE ENVOYS FROM BABYLON, HIS ERROR WAS ALL THE WORSE BECAUSE IT SHOWED A LACK OF APPRECIATION FOR GOD’S GRACE. Hezekiah had been sick and about to die, but he prayed that God would spare his life, and God did exactly that. And so after that, when in his pride “his heart was lifted up” and he acted foolishly toward the Babylonian representatives (2 Kings 20:12-19), Hezekiah demonstrated a lack of gratitude for the mercy that God had extended to him. As the text says, he “did not repay according to the favor shown him” — and that’s a serious mistake.

When we’re thinking as we should, there is no greater motivation to do what’s right than the awareness that God, or even someone else, has treated us better than we deserve. Knowing that we’ve been shown mercy humbles us and moves us to do better.

But we don’t always think as we should, do we? And when grace is shown to us and we take it for granted, receiving it thoughtlessly and unappreciatively, there is no greater sin. One of the saddest stories in the New Testament is the one in Luke 17:11-19, where the Lord healed ten men of their leprosy. When only one, a Samaritan, came back to thank the Lord, He said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”

Do we do any better than the unthankful nine? We wouldn’t remain alive today if it weren’t for God’s grace. We’ve been forgiven of sins that we didn’t deserve to have forgiven. God has been patient and longsuffering with us, far past the point when justice would have blasted us out of existence. But do we “repay according to the favor shown” to us? Too many times, we do not.

Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Basically, we say “thank you” to God for His grace and favor BY OBEYING HIS WILL. And in particular, we show gratitude for God’s grace by extending grace to others. “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy” (James 2:13).

“Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies” (Charles Edward Jefferson).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

THERE IS A SENSE IN WHICH IT IS ONLY THE RIGHTEOUS WHO WILL “GET WHAT THEY WANT.” Eventually, those who have circumvented God’s will to obtain their desires will find that the satisfaction of their desires brought them not fulfillment but frustration.

The deceitfulness of sin is that it takes desires that God gave us and persuades us TO FULFILL THOSE DESIRES IN ILLEGITIMATE WAYS. Take sexual desire, for example. God gave us that desire and provided for its genuine fulfillment. When we, however, try to fulfill that desire in ways that God has forbidden, not only do we sin but we fail to get the thing we thought we were after. It may be momentarily pleasurable, but no amount of sexual immorality will ever be as gratifying in the long run as committed love within the marriage relationship. But that’s simply one example. The same thing can be said of ANY desire. Fulfill it in God-appointed ways and you’ll get what you want. Fulfill it in forbidden ways and you’ll eventually find yourself frustrated. “The hope of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.”

It’s arrogant to presume that we can take whatever we want, however we wish to get it, and then enjoy it as much as we want. We may, in fact, take whatever we want, but God has it within His power TO WITHHOLD FROM US THE ENJOYMENT OF WHAT WE’VE TAKEN. In Ecclesiastes, we’re taught that the person who acquires “riches and wealth” may consider himself blessed only if God has also “given him the power to eat of it” (Ecclesiastes 5:19; 6:2). So “getting what we want” may turn out to be harder than we thought.

I believe two things are needful: (1) We need to be GRATEFUL for the hopes and aspirations and desires that God has planted within our hearts, and (2) we need to be willing for those desires to be fulfilled ON HIS TERMS. God wants nothing but the best for us. To seek anything other than His will for our lives is to put our feet on a path that leads to nothing but disappointment in the end.

“Man finds it hard to get what he wants because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give because he would give the best and man will not take it” (George MacDonald).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

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