“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain” (1 Cor. 9:24).
The Bible often likens the Christian life to a race, in which every believer is a participant. And “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, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” If we would run so as to “obtain” a reward when we stand before Him, it will be because we are constantly looking away from ourselves and other people and circumstances, and “looking unto Jesus.” He is the Goal upon which the eyes of the runner must be steadfastly fixed. “I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” With Paul, may we be able to say that “I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Let us run with patience the race,
Looking to Jesus our Goal,
Until we shall look on His face
And walk on the streets of gold.
Heb. 12:1-2; Psa. 16:8; Phil. 3:13-14.