Heb. 12:1-2; Gen. 4:3-8, We are in a race! (3)

How are we to run the race in a winning manner?  There are a couple of general principles that we can add to what we already have seen.  What we have seen is that engaging on the battlefield of prayer is one thing.  We saw this in Jesus, Epaphras and Paul.  Another has to do with attitude, an attitude that recognizes that “agony” is par for the course we are on.  Now consider these three fundamental truths.

·       1 Tim. 4:10: Running the race victoriously means we are trusting in the living God.  The NU text reads “we labor and strive (agown).”  Why do we do that?  Because we are not doing this for and through a dead idol.  Our hope is in the living God, the one and only true God.

·       1 Tim. 6:12: We are called to “agonizomai (fight) the good agown (fight) of faith.”  This is a good fight.  This glorifies our Creator.  What better way to express our faith in Him and to give Him thanks than to stand strong for Him.  Both these passages from 1 Timothy speak of what motivates us.

·       1 Cor. 9:25: Here is the principle that Paul expressed in our previous post, from Acts 20:24.  Paul did not let anything keep him from running the course set before him.  In other words, he was “temperate in all things.”  He exercised self-control, which for Christians means being filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit!

Lastly, consider three sad illustrations of men who did not finish well. 

·       Gen. 4:3-8: Cain.  Unlike Paul who kept his eyes on the mark (Phil. 3:17), who would not let anything get in the way of running the course before him, Cain could not or would not control himself.  “Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.”  In other words, he was discouraged.  Specifically, God did not respond the way he, Cain, thought He should.  How often do we get off the course or just go sit in the stands because something on the course discouraged us.  The LORD appealed to him, to rule over his feelings.  That’s what 1 Cor. 9:25 is talking about: the one who strives victoriously controls himself by the Spirit.

·       Matt. 27:3-5: Judas.  Here is another man who did not control himself when he was struck by feelings.  As the NKJV says, he was “remorseful.”  That is not repentance.  In repentance there is a dealing with sin as it should be.  We change our mind, which leads to a change in actions and proper dealing with sin.  But Judas was sorry for how it turned out.  He admitted his sin to the chief priests and elders, but he did not come to God, which is the first step in repentance.

·       Gen. 27:34,41; Heb. 12:16-17: Esau.  In the Study of Hebrews this is an important illustration.  Like Israel, when they were at Kadesh Barnea and had one opportunity to go in and take the land, so Esau had one opportunity to do the right thing.  He didn’t do it.  He sold his birthright.  But what was the setting (Gen. 25:29-24)?  He was tired and hungry.  He was overcome by feelings and an attitude of self-pity.  “I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?”  Then, at crunch time, he cried out to his father, but to no avail.  As Hebrews puts it, he had lots of tears, but no repentance. 

There are many other illustrations among the kings of Judah, men like Solomon, Asa and Joash, who ran well, but then failed at the end.  How important it is to seek the Creator in the days of our youth (Eccl. 12:1), to bear the yoke of discipline in our youth (Lam. 3:27) that we might declare the glory of the LORD in our old age (Ps. 71:18).