Run the Great Race – Paul, I believe was a sports fan, as he mentions several sports like running. We must run the great race with patience, some translations say endurance. The starting point of the race is the chains of bondage. The finish line is at the feet of Jesus in glory. Where we must take up our cross and deny our selves and do His Will. We must share the gospel on our race!

Run the Great Race

We are in a race against the world. The world will try what ever it can do to weigh us down. We must shed the weight, sin that easily besets us. Read the previous post, Weight Loss in the Bible for more information on that. Once we do that, we can run the race. Run with the goal in mind, that goal is Christ Jesus! Overcome every obstacle that comes in our pathway! Give it our all! Only Jesus can give us this strength. This Great Race we are on is known as the Race of Faith.

Run – trechō  τρέχω

The Greek Word for Run is trechō  τρέχω (Strong’s G5143) This gives an idea of extreme type of peril, like we must strive hard and exert ourselves in this race. We must give our all in effort to over come and cross the finish line. The idea is given like that of a race course, maybe like the Summer Olympics where you run around the track or even a specialized cross-country course.

Run the Great Race – Conditioning

When we prepare for a race, we condition ourselves for this race. Part of this condition is the losing of weight, the sin that sets us back. See Weight Loss in the Bible. Another part of condition is staying in the Word of God, Being in Prayer, Fellowship, Worship and more. These are disciplines we use to stay focused on God so we can run the race. Remember our reward is not a big trophy like Olympic athletes get, but we get our reward in Heaven. That is why Discipleship Training is needed. To train and equip us in the Ways of the Lord, so we can stay on the correct course on this run.

Run the Great Race – Hurtles

Even in some running there are hurtles that the athlete must jump over to stay in the race. We will have hurtles (or obstacles) that will come in our run. Why we must run with patience. We must give our all but we must pace our self with the will of God too. Sometimes we may want to go faster when God wants us to slow down, or vise versa. He may want us to go faster, while we want to slow down. Being patient and waiting on Him can be hard. But we must remember, He knows what is best for us in this great race we are running. God also knows what is up ahead. We don’t know. God sees the who picture!

These hurtles can be sin that pushes back in the race or temporary stops us in our tracks. This is the time we must call out to Jesus for help and ask forgiveness for these sins that pushed us back. We need to ask for help to keep us pushing forward. It is not going to be a pie in the sky type of race either. It is going to be a hard race to run too. The devil would enjoy causing you go get off the path or stop the race.

Run the Great Race – Finish Line

We don’t stop running this race until we cross the finish line.  So when do we cross the finish line? I am glad you asked! We cross that finish line, when we pass away and go onto glory to be with our Lord and Savior for eternity. This is when we can cast our crowns at the feet of Jesus. We aren’t deserving of the crowns, because it was Him inside us that achieved those crowns.

Hebrews 12:1-8 New King James Version (NKJV) – The Race of Faith

12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

[tweetshare tweet=”Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” username=”ChristianBlogR”]

Closing

Run the race with patience and your eyes on Jesus. When we take our eyes off Jesus we sink, like Peter did. We can’t run this race without Jesus. We must Run To Go, Not Away from God.

[tweetshare tweet=”Run the race with patience and your eyes on Jesus. When we take our eyes off Jesus we sink.” username=”ChristianBlogR”]

About the Author

Steve Patterson

A Christian Blogger that enjoys blogging about the Bible, Theology, God, Jesus Christ, Christian Music, Family, Cats, Odd Holidays, sewing and much more. I have been blogging since 2004, however, I have been blogging on Courageous Christian Father since 2012. I enjoy listening to Christian Music. I am married with 1 daughter, 2 step-sons and a step daughter.

See author's posts