The Finish Line

7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.   ~ 2 Timothy 4:7-8 

I have never run more than a mile at a time in my life – and that was back in high school gym class and only because it was required.  I usually prefer to joke about how I am allergic to exercise – it makes me break out in a sweat!  When I was required to run, there was always the voice telling me to slow down and walk a little bit, but if I had stopped, it would have been harder to get going again.  Ignoring that voice and listening instead to the pace of foot falls of a fellow classmate that was on the track team, I was able to stay ahead and run the entire mile without stopping.  Granted, I would walk it off a little bit so that I wouldn’t cramp up and then would lie down on the gym floor or in the grass, depending on if we were inside or out, and try to catch my breath again. 

The Christian life is much like running a race.  We must diligently set aside time and study scripture and pray in order to build up the strength and endurance to run this race we call life instead of just getting up and settling back into our own routine for the day.  We cannot get lazy and break our pace of reading and prayer or it becomes that much harder to get back into a routine of faithful communing with God.  We will be rewarded at the end of our lives for our faithfulness to Him, as we not only study and pray, but apply what we learn from God in our daily lives to live more like Christ. 

Prayer 

Dear Lord,

Help us to set aside some time each day to study and pray to You so that we can finish this race called life by crossing the finish line living our lives as Christ would have us live.  Amen.

~ Wendy Miller