Once you get to know me, it doesn’t take long to figure out that I am a big sports fan!  I thoroughly enjoyed the NBA finals and I can’t wait for college football to start in a couple of months.

As we read Scripture, we also find that the Apostle Paul must have liked sports.  He mentions several in the Bible: boxing, wrestling, and even running.  What we find in Paul’s writing is that Biblical life lessons can often be illustrated using sports analogies.  In today’s text, Paul uses the illustration of running a race.

In every race, things like awareness, endurance, starting line, finishing line, and goals are needed.  Many things will hinder the runner – things like looking to the side or even looking behind.  Since believers have started the Christian race in Justification and will finish the race in Glorification, the time in the middle is our Sanctification.  In this text, Paul teaches believers to “press on” in their faith.  As the Bible teaches us, the Christian faith is a persevering faith.

By the power of God’s Holy Spirit, there will be a yearning and striving for believers as we seek to grow in our relationship with Jesus.  This will involve not looking back; that is, forgetting past victories and former failures.  It will also involve moving forward while fixing our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2).

What is keeping you from pressing on in your faith?  Are you getting tired (Gal 6:9) or discouraged (1 Cor 15:58)?  God is still at work on us – He is not finished yet!  At the end of our days, let us say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.”

Rev. Adam Mumpower, Senior Pastor