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"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."
(2 Timothy 4:7)
Every physical and spiritual race has three components: a starting point, the actual running of the race, and the finish.
Starting a race is vitally important, because if you never start, then you will never know the thrill of running and will never cross the finish line. Many people, including me, started running physical races at a very slow and manageable pace. My journey began when I was 40 years old. I never liked to run, and when I turned 40, I still did not like it, but did it anyway, somewhat because of a physical crisis I was facing. I had to have blood work done to buy life insurance. As God told Moses millennia ago, "The life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11). Those results tell the true story of your health. My triglycerides (sugar in the blood) were very high; normal is 150 or below, and mine was 539! This was way too high, so I knew I had to make some changes to my lifestyle. I cut out Coke, Dr. Pepper, and my nightly cookies and ice cream. I also started jogging, and here I am almost 20 years later having kept the weight off and now enjoying running. Praise the Lord!
Most adults come to Jesus during a crisis. They begin their Christian journey or race because they come up against something that brings them face to face with reality, the reality that they are not all-sufficient, they need help, and most of all, they need Jesus. I surrendered to Christ at age 19. My doubts and fear of death were removed the moment Jesus saved me! Do you remember when you gave your life to the Lord? Perhaps you were a child or young person. Perhaps you were an adult, and you came to Christ out of a crisis. It's so neat how God loves us, and even when we do not have anything to do with Him, when our lives start falling apart, He wants to have everything to do with us. During our Set Our Sails prayer meeting a couple of weeks ago at our church, I read the following verses from Titus 3:3-7 that speak of the salvation Jesus gives to all who believe in Him:
"For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
Have you begun the race? Have you started a relationship with Jesus Christ? If not, there is no time like right now, as 2 Corinthians 6:2 says. I invite you to say yes to Jesus today and give Him your life. In Revelation 3:20 Jesus tells us that He will come into our lives if we only ask Him to do so.
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