Finish the Race

Written by Alfred Ofori Agyemang.

“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry (NIV) Ephesians 4:26.

People seek God because they want to enjoy the providence, provisions and escape the judgment of the Almighty. Some start the spiritual journey with so much energy but along the way loses their steam of vigour. The journey to the Promised Land is long and complex.

Let us take some lessons from King Asa who reigned 41 years in Jerusalem. He started well depending on God and did what was right in the eyes of the Lord (1Kings 15:10). He removed alters for worshipping idols, trusted God in times of war, reformed his country to please God and entered into a covenant with the Lord to seek Him with all their heart and soul (2Chro. 15:12,15).

As humans transiting on earth, we must not just live for ourselves, but we must do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. We must turn away from the many false religions and conform our religious practices and worship to God’s ways. Trust the Lord in all of our battles and let us be encouraged by God’s word to be strong, knowing that we will reap if we endure to the end. Later in his life, King Asa deviated from what he started. He failed to rely on God and made a covenant with Ben-Hadad, King of Syria; punished Hanani the prophet for telling him the truth, and oppressed some of the people. In the 39th year of his reign, he didn’t seek God when he became ill (2 Chr. 16:12). He did well for 39 years and deviated for the least 2 years of his reign.

We cannot finish our spiritual race if we choose unacceptable solutions to our challenges instead of depending on God. We will fail in our race if we use quick fixes by compromising with the enemy. When we reject the gospel truth, hate and persecute those who tell us the truth, we are doomed in our race. If we take our guilt and frustrations on others and fail to trust God to provide help in our difficulties, we will give up on our race. One of the saddest and most discouraging things in life is to see a fellow Christian lose faith and stop serving God.

We can finish our race by committing ourselves to seek the Lord with our whole heart, put away our sins, opposing evil and not condoning evil. We need to be loyal to the Christian call (Matt. 6:24). We should obey God by faith, continue the race by faith and then receive the prize by faith. The end of our spiritual lives is more important than the beginning. Let’s us finish the spiritual race of life with perseverance, persistence, then the prize will be ours (1Cor. 15:58). Finish your race well. Amen!

Doing what is right|| More

Joomla SEF URLs by Artio

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.