what to do in order to finish our christian race strong
My nephew Jordan is younger than me by just iii years. For this reason, and due to the fact that he and his brother (only six years my junior) lived just a couple miles down the route during our babyhood years, the three of us shared a relationship more akin to siblings than that of an uncle and his nephews.
During my loftier school years, I would typically dominate Hashemite kingdom of jordan in one-on-one basketball skirmishes. These wins weren't much of an accomplishment, of course, because I was bigger and stronger than Jordan in my freshman through my senior years. But each summertime I would came back from college for summertime breaks, I noticed that the residuum of power was slowly just most certainly shifting.
The Stop of a Dynasty
Part of the problem is that I had stopped growing in eighth grade and peaked at merely nether five-foot-8. Jordan continued to grow until he topped out at about 6-foot tall. He had also connected to hone his courtroom skills and was developing into an fantabulous baller. Where I used to make easy work of our matches, Jordan was more consistently challenging my tenure as champion. Our best-of-seven tournaments would no longer become iv-0 or 4-one. At present, Jordan was pushing u.s. to six, even 7 games.
Only it was my junior year of higher that my reign finally came to an end. The serial would now go to seven games, but Jordan would regularly ain the four wins required to take the series. The dynasty was officially over.
Failing to Finish
During this tedious and painful transition of power every bit Jordan was consistently winning our one-on-ane tournaments, the games still remained competitive. I would first our tournaments well, going upward 2-0, fifty-fifty iii-one, only to lose the next three or 4 straight games and hand the series to Jordan. The problem wasn't that I didn't start well. The trouble was that I only wasn't able to end.
When information technology comes to friendly competition between relatives, this is an amusing story. When information technology comes to our Christian lives, declining to cease well is no laughing matter. While Scripture speaks often of our security in Christ, it also regularly exhorts u.s.a. to finish our race and warns us that terrible things await those who make a profession but fall away from Jesus when the going gets tough.
A Good Commencement Doesn't Mean a Proficient Catastrophe
And, like my feel with my nephew and our basketball exploits in my latter years of higher, starting well doesn't guarantee that nosotros will finish well. Consider Saul. He seemed to begin well with God. He appeared apprehensive and valiant, ready to serve the Lord and his fellow Israelites (ane Sam 9:21; 11:6ff). Even so, he eventually fell into unrepentant sin that revealed he was more concerned with his own reputation than the glory of God and the good of his people.
So at that place's Demas, Paul'south ministry companion who eventually left Christ for the pleasures of this world (2 Tim 4:10). Jesus' parable of the soils speaks of a kind of response to the gospel that begins with great promise and flourish, only to wilt away at the kickoff sign of persecution (Matt xiii:20). Biblically speaking, what appears as a potent start doesn't always translate into a strong finish.
Add together to these biblical examples the people you know who once professed Christ and appeared to exist growing in the faith but who eventually succumbed to the enticements of sin and unbelief. Sadly, my list grows with each passing yr.
The Bible, therefore, doesn't encourage united states to residual on past spiritual experiences, revel in last month'south obedience, or ruminate on exercises of faith from two weeks ago. Rather, Scripture repeatedly instructs God's people to practise religion and obedience now and press forrad in our pursuit of Christ and heavenly things. Consider Paul'south example:
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to get in my own, because Christ Jesus has fabricated me his own. Brothers, I practice not consider that I have made it my own. Simply one thing I practice: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies alee, I printing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-xiv
Detect that Paul is confident that he belongs to Christ ("Christ Jesus made me his own"), but he doesn't set up his sight on past experiences ("forgetting what lies backside"); rather he aims at his time to come with Christ, fifty-fifty "straining forward to what lies alee." The writer of Hebrews exhorts u.s.a. to printing ahead in our Christian life when he writes, "For nosotros have come to share in Christ, if indeed nosotros concord our original conviction business firm to the stop" (Heb 3:fifteen). Jesus urged his disciples not to neglect their perseverance when people around them were giving upward on Christ or turning to counterfeits:
And then many volition fall away and betray one some other and detest 1 another. And many imitation prophets volition arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness volition be increased, the beloved of many will grow cold. Only the one who endures to the cease will be saved.
Matthew 24:10-12
How to Printing Ahead
The call for professing Christians, then, is to keep making progress in our organized religion and not to allow spiritual stagnation to settle into our lives. While 18-carat faith in Christ is secure and cannot be lost (John ten:27-30; Rom 8:28-39), the same God who provides us with a secure salvation also provides u.s. the means to go on believing. What are the biblical strategies we tin can implement to make sure nosotros terminate well?
(1) Go along Believing the Word of God and Repenting of Your Sin. The essence of apostasy is unbelief. The remedy to apostasy, therefore, is faith. State of israel fell away from God and came nether his judgment because they failed to receive God's Give-and-take by faith (Heb 4:2). The writer of Hebrews, as he feared his listeners were in danger of falling away from Christ, repeatedly exhorted them to proceed believing in God's promises and repenting from the sin that saddled them with spiritual difficulty (Heb x:19-25). In our reading of Scripture and listening to preaching and didactics, we galvanize ourselves confronting apostasy when we carefully absorb the truth we hear and apply that truth to provoke specific repentance in our lives (Matt thirteen:23).
(2) Remain Near to Jesus Christ. We don't remain near to Jesus without believing God's Discussion and repenting of our sin, merely it is important to emphasize the gracious nature of our relationship to Christ considering faith and repentance are often hindered when nosotros doubtfulness the love of Christ and his patience toward us. Jesus describes himself as "gentle and lowly in centre" (Matt 11:29). He is a "friend of sinners" (Matt xi:19) who doesn't break a bruised reed or snuff out a smoldering wick (Matt 12:xx). In Christ all of our sins are forgiven—by, present, and future—so he now merely acts in love toward us (Col 2:13). When we do sin, therefore, nosotros must now allow difficult thoughts of Christ to enter our minds that make us hesitant to become straight to him for aid.
Satan would dearest to convince that we must remain an arm'south distance from Jesus when nosotros sin and remain in a state of earthly purgatory until we've cleaned up our mess. Only this approach is the verbal opposite of how nosotros are to engage with our Savior when we've sinned. John tells us that if nosotros sin, we have an advocate with the Begetter (1 John 2:i); when we sin, nosotros are able to confess that sin and receive cleansing from God (i John 1:8). Our sin should not drive us abroad from Christ but closer to him then that we might receive renewed forgiveness and spiritual cleansing. When nosotros are shut to Jesus, we are far from apostasy.
(3) Heed the Warnings. 1 way that God keeps his people believing and repenting is by giving us warnings of what happens when a professing laic departs from the organized religion (due east.chiliad., Heb 2:1-2; four:6-7; 6:1-8; ten:26-31). The warnings are not meant to undermine our assurance; rather, God intends these warnings to motivate us to remain diligent in exercising faith and obedience. Don't skip by New Attestation warnings considering you know your conservancy is secure. Instead, make good use of these warnings and allow them to prompt y'all to take action in your Christian life.
(four) Cultivate Humility Toward God. In the narrative of the Old Testament kings, we learn of some leaders who started well failed to finish in like style because they fell into pride (ii Chron 26:16; 32:25). They became self-sufficient, cocky-reliant, self-focused, and arrogant. Pride disabled them from believing and repenting and walking near to their God (cf. Micah half dozen:8). Information technology is the very nature of pride to hinder religion in Christ (John 5:44) and obstruct the flow of God's grace into our lives (James iv:vi). A key to perseverance is to see ourselves equally fully dependent upon God for everything (John fifteen:vi; i Cor one:26-31), to seek his glory in all things (1 Cor x:31), and to remain content in our callings (1 Cor 7:17).
(v) Embed Yourself in the Local Church. Finally, in order for the above four exhortations to exist constructive, we must integrate ourselves thoroughly in the local church. Information technology is through the accountability and mutual encouragement of the local church building that we are enabled to persevere in the faith (Heb three:12-15; 10:24-25). Indeed, God has and so designed the Christian life that perseverance in the faith is severely hindered without the local church. A Christian who distances himself from his local congregation and attempts to walk with Jesus by himself volition only run into spiritual trouble (Prov eighteen:1).
Conclusion
Information technology is tempting, once we've established a skillful beginning, to ease dorsum a fiddling and fail to finish what we've started. Every bit we've seen, this can happen in 1-on-1 basketball tournaments between relatives. But most chiefly, it can happen in our Christian lives. But God has given us everything nosotros need to stop our race well. Nosotros accept the Scripture, the church, and the examples of those who went before us and remained faithful until the end. Let's grab a concur of these resource and regain our step then that we can someday say with Paul, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the organized religion" (ii Tim iv:vii).
Source: https://withallwisdom.org/2020/12/21/finish-your-christian-race-well/
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