Rise Again...and Run!!!
Text: Philippians 3:13-14
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
The race you and I are in, the course we are running, is not a sprint! It's a marathon! And, in running the marathon, your goal is to finish the race, not fall out by the wayside before you cross the finish line. There is a time to rest, and there is a time to keep running! Wisdom is knowing the difference between the two!
Carole Mayhall writes: "The other night Jack and I watched a television drama called See How She Runs. In it, a 40-year old, divorced school teacher decided to become a jogger and eventually entered the 26-mile Boston Marathon. Its a grueling test of heart, mind, and body. To finish the race became her goal, and in spite of being jeered at and assaulted, she didnt lose sight of it. When the day of the race came, she faced her ultimate test. As she ran, huge blisters developed on her feet. She was hit and injured by a bicycle. Several miles short of the finish line found her utterly exhausted, yet she kept going.
Then, within a few hundred yards of her goal, late at night when most other runners had finished or dropped out, she fell and lay flat on her face too tired to get up. But her friends put a crude tape across the finish line and cheered her on. She lifted her head, saw the tape, and realized her goal was within sight. With supreme effort, she got back up, and with a burst of energy dredged up from deep within her, ran the last few yards."
Victory belongs to those who keep looking at the goal, not the going, not the process, but the prize, not the trial, but the treasure that is promised to those who persevere.
A two-fold theme of Christianity is RISING AGAIN and RUNNING THE RACE. But you can't win if you don't run and risk falling. And no matter what caused you to fall, the word for you today is, "Take Gods hand, get up, and run!"
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