"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." — Philippians 3:14
At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, a marathon runner from Tanzania named John Stephen Akhwari fell hard on the pavement at the 19-kilometer mark. He dislocated his knee and badly injured his shoulder. The medical team wanted him to quit. The gold medal winner had crossed the finish line over an hour earlier. Most of the crowd had gone home. The stadium lights were dimming. Yet Akhwari rose from the pavement, wrapped his bleeding knee, and hobbled the remaining distance in sheer agony. When he finally entered that near-empty stadium, the few thousand people who remained gave him a standing ovation.
A reporter asked him afterward, why didn't you just stop?
He said, my country did not send me 5,000 miles to start a race. They sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.
Friend, I think that is the spirit God is calling out of every one of us. Paul knew exactly what it felt like to be that man. He had been beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, and run out of more cities than most of us have visited. And yet from a Roman prison, with scars on his body and chains on his wrists, he wrote these words: "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
He wasn't pressing because the road was easy. He was pressing because the prize at the end was worth every painful step forward.
So let me ask you something tonight. Are you running to finish, or have you quietly stopped somewhere along the track? God didn't save you just to get you started. He saved you to see you all the way home.
Let's pray: Father, give us the grit to finish what You started in us. When we're tempted to quit, remind us of the prize. In Jesus' name, Amen.
#Faith #Perseverance #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #FinishTheRace #TrustGod #RTTBROS #Nightlight
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