Running The Race With Patience
Thursday, July 13, 2023Key Verse
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
Text — Hebrews 12:1-3
Message
In the 2018 Boston Marathon on April 16, 85-year-old Katherine Beiers with a trash bag draped over her shoulders to fend off the pouring rain, steadily made her way through Newton. Despite the near-freezing temperature, heavy rain, and furious winds, she crossed the finish line in seven hours and 50 minutes as one of the last runners on the course.
Our text admonishes us to run with patience, that is, with perseverance and endurance. Just as an athlete would usually wear the lightest sporting kits to make him as fast as possible, the believer is admonished to lay aside every weight and any besetting sin to enable him run the race with patience. Gossiping, backbiting, murmuring and indulging in any form of unrighteousness will certainly impede the progress of the believer on his race to heaven. The athlete in his quest for a medal will endure harsh trainings. We should also be determined to endure the hostile environment the world offers us in our quest for heavenly glories.
Quote
Endure the hostile environment
Challenge
Determine to finish the heavenly race.
Prayer for today
Heavenly Father, help me to keep my gaze on you.
About Author - Pastor W.F. Kumuyi
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
