Divine Intentions: God’s Plan For Your FutureSample

RUN YOUR RACE 

There is a quitting crisis in our culture today. As a society, we have made peace with giving up. We see this unhealthy trend in every arena of life. Our revised motto goes like this, “When the going gets tough, the tough stop trying.”

You can try your hardest and still fail—but don’t give up. Failure builds character. Quitting destroys the soul. When you choose to quit, you take over the outcome and kill your chance of winning, losing, or growing. You can grow in both victory and in defeat, but quitting is always infertile ground, sabotaging any possibility of growth.

God wants us to run our races. The writer of Hebrews wrote a whole chapter that biblical scholars affectionately call The Hall of Fame of Faith. It reminds us of heroes of faith like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and more. The writer concludes his thoughts on these amazing people, telling us they “were all commended for their faith” (Hebrews 11:39 niv). 

Just when you wonder where the author is going, he connects us with the bold faith of our ancient heroes, who are now in the heavenly stadium cheering us on. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1 niv). Another translation says, “We have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands” (tlb). Those who have gone before us are watching us run our race with great anticipation. 

The past champions are giving out high fives and maybe even doing the wave. They are cheering for us. Past generations of faith are engaged in our struggle. 

Hebrews 12:1 tells us that we are connected to the faith-filled men and women of the past. We are not running an independent race; instead, we’re in a relay event. We have taken the baton from those who ran before us and we are running the same race in our generation. 

Your stadium is full today. Maybe no one is cheering for you in this life, but you have a huge, heavenly audience. The heroes of the Bible and everyone who’s gone before you surround you as you run your race. They are depending on you. Do not quit!