Throwing in the Towel....

For most of us, every day there is something or someone who comes against us; makes life harder than we believe it should be; keeps us from knowing the joy that life is supposed to bring as followers of Christ. It seems that at every turn life is thwarted our ambitions, killing our dreams and annihilating our passions for living life to its fullest.  Sometimes, you just want to throw in the towel and call it quits! Am I right!?!

But the good book, that is our spiritual "play book" in this game of life, tells us something different. The writer of Hebrews begins Chapter 12, by writing, "And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Verses 1b-3.

So as always in this life, the choice is yours! You can sit around and feel sorry for yourself and begin to wad up that towel to throw into the ring....or you can cinch up you belt, re-tie those shoe laces and get back to doing what God has called you to do...RUN THE RACE, PERSERVE AND WIN!!!! But here's the kicker to this scenario...YOU CANNOT DO THIS ON YOUR OWN! You need to keep your eyes on Jesus so that you may run with perseverance the course as God has laid out for your life.

Too often, when life lets us have it with both barrels, we just want to lick our wounds and call it quits....THROW IN THE TOWEL...But God has a better way...HIS WAY! There are no "bad breaks" in the life of a believer, for once we placed our faith and hope in our eternal God and trusted in the shed blood of His Son, our lives became irrevocably tied to the will of our Heavenly Father. God has set for us the race that is our life. He has ordained a marked course that we are to follow and anything...yes, ANYTHING...that happens along the way, good or bad, has his handprint upon it! God is preparing us for the win and for the great JOY that will be ours at the conclusion of our race. But getting to the finish line requires two things....Trust and Perseverance.

We must first trust God that He loves us and that there is nothing that can come against us that He does not seeing coming and that He is not prepared for....after all, HE IS THE CREATOR AND LORD OF THE UNIVERSE!!!! And secondly, when doubts arise that He is in control, and believe me, those doubts will come....WE MUST PERSEVERE and keep our eyes on Jesus.

He is our role model when it comes to not throwing in the towel and when we do as He did, we will be victorious and sit beside Him at our Father's throne.

I have often heard it say that life is a matter of storms. You are either heading into a storm....you are in the midst of a storm...or you're coming out of a storm. If that is so, then let the storms come because I have my eyes on Jesus...and I know that when He speaks and says "SILENCE, BE STILL!" that the storm is my life will cease and I can continue to run my race for HE IS WITH ME EVERY STEP OF THE WAY!!!

Holding on to the towel...running the race,

WPQ

Poem for the day...

Life may have its ups and down

The good times, they may be few.

But running in this race called life,

There's some things we each must do.

We must trust the Father

For when bad things come our way;

We must run the race that's marked before us

And live to fight another day.

We must persevere at any cost,

Our eyes fixed upon the prize;

So we might dwell in heavenly places

And gaze into our Savior's eyes.

So no matter what may lie ahead;

No matter the storms that come...

We'll run the race we were meant to run,

THE ONE THAT LEADS US HOME!!!!!

WPQ © JUNE 2018