Press On

 

Press On 

Ecclesiastes 9:11-12

11 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. 12 For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them.

We must keep moving forward towards all the promises that are awaiting us in the Lord. Our faith is spurring us on as we put one foot in front of the other. God’s Word is our spiritual food that gives us the stamina to trust in Him. We have the Word to comfort our hearts when we’re in need of inspiration.

You see we are running a race to win our prize that comes with eternal life and eternal rewards. Christ is the reason why we’re in this race. He sets the race and all the parameters in how we should live, love, worship, pray, forgive, and knows our outcome.

This race is a spiritual race that we’re running and yet it’s like a natural race we would prepare for if we were planning to participate and win. Many of us have no clear understanding about the significance of why we must think of our Christian walk or life as being in a race of some sort.

Sometimes we may be influenced by others to do things in life or want to participate in a thing because someone we like is doing it, nevertheless for what personal or other reason this is not quite the contrary because this is a decision that will follow us into eternity. 

Those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior are now a part of the spiritual race. The scripture in the Bible says how we should start “ Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. What that means is that we need to start pursuing God first in our lives and learn what is the right way of living according to His standards. Our priorities and minds must shift to thinking and learning what are the commandments of God and apply them to our living.

First and foremost, we should be learning and studying the life of Jesus because His life exemplified the course of the Christian race. How did He live while on earth, the relationship between Him and the Father in heaven and how He was mistreated and misunderstood by the religious leaders that plotted to kill Him? The many things that He suffered while ministering to His people about the kingdom of God.

He is our champion and have won the victory over defeating death. He was crucified for our sins, the sins of the human race and rose three days later from the grave. This happened according to the prophecies because He is the Christ. The people were looking for someone else because they had different thoughts about who the Messiah was or should be because they were naturally blind by their carnal thinking. Nonetheless, He was the Anointed One.

We are His followers and are still alive. We must continue living as Christ would command us to in His Word until our race is finished. The Holy Spirit is our teacher, comforter, helper, and we are sealed to Him. So, we don’t have to blindly try to figure out what we should be doing. We are never alone or left behind because of our flaws, disabilities, weakness, suffering, persecution, afflictions, and lack of wisdom and understanding because the Holy Spirit is dwelling inside each of us.

But we must pray to the Holy Spirit daily and ask Him for help and guidance to remain steadfast in the race. When we engage in godly fellowship with others that too helps us to know that we’re not alone but we must remember that everyman is running their own race and yet we are more connected for a spiritual cause – the prize of eternal life.  

Let us remember that during our race Jesus is forming an intimate relationship with each of us. He’s working in our lives to personally reveal how much we mean to Him by blessing our faith to endure to the end. It is the key to holding on when hard times come, and life gets us down. He sends us words of encouragement through the Holy Spirit. We must focus on these messages because the enemy will show up to cast doubt and throw distractions to cause us to not think that God truly does love us. 

God is Spirit and we must pray for more understanding. He moves in the spirit to reveal to us to come up a little higher in our minds to worship Him and allow our faith to flourish by trusting in the Word of the Lord.

So now that we have a little more information about the Christian race and why we’re running we have to keep pressing forward and reach up and reach with all our hearts and minds to show Christ that we believe and love Him and want the promises in His Word that are all yes and amen.

 

Press On

There is a place

For my heart longs to rejoice

Faith and courage I proclaim

Sometimes life is not fair

As I press toward the prize

My soul is renewed

I must pray to muster the hope

As I journey down the road

Blessings will enter my path

For every test, trial and tribulation

I can only imagine what is in store

Freedom, grace, and love

As I try to fathom the reward

I shall sing mercy

For my soul and spirit belongs to God almighty

 ã2004 “Naima’s Inspirational Melodies”