‘There is a race that I must run, There are victories to be won, Give me power Lord every hour, To be true’
As the above song says, our Christian life is a race and God wants us to run this race, to press on and never give up! Never shrink back in this race! In this race, there are many hurdles, fears, discouragements, hindrances, trials, difficulties and problems; but there are victories to be won! We need to overcome, all these. We must win this race, by the power of God.
We read about Elijah; he was very discouraged.
1 Kings 19:7, ‘The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.”’
Christian life is not a bed of roses, we have many hurdles in this race. Bible says, we need to overcome, all these by His power. It should not slow us down in our race. Do not grow weary and lose heart. There is a long journey ahead of us, so we need to arise and be strong in the Lord, to win the race that is set before us.
V2, ‘Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” 3 And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.”’
By hearing the words that Jezebel said, that she would kill him, Elijah got fear in his heart! He ran for his life and came to the wilderness and sat under a juniper tree, completely discouraged. He was thinking he was alone! To die! Loneliness and discouragement came in his life. God does not want us to be in this place of loneliness and discouragement; sitting under a juniper tree; is not for us! This is not the place to be! Holy Spirit is encouraging us, to rise up and move forward; because there is a long journey ahead of us. The angel of the Lord, strengthened Elijah, to arise, eat and move on, to press on further in his journey. Like an isolated sheep, we should not sit under a juniper tree, in discouragement! We have a living God, who encourages and helps us to press on to the perfection and win the race.
Sometimes, we may fall into sin but we should never be under condemnation! We need to rise and move forward in the race!
Micah 7:7, ‘But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. 8.Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me.’
Never be under condemnation or in discouragement! Discouragement is sin! Holy Spirit is encouraging us, that there is a race and we need to win.
Hebrews 12:1, ‘Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.’
Jesus endured the cross; He is also encouraging us to endure and run the race with endurance, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Win this race with endurance, do not grow weary and lose heart!
We need to overcome every encumbrance, sin, trial and hurdles that we face in this race, by the power of the Holy Spirit and fixing our eyes on Jesus. We must press on and win this race, by casting all our burdens on Him as He will sustain us. By His strength, we can overcome all things.
Psalms 18:29, ‘For by You I can run upon a troop; And by my God I can leap over a wall.’
By His strength, we can run and leap over a wall, in this race. We can overcome by His power.
When we face circumstances of difficult situations and trials, we may ask God, that why are we facing them? Gideon also asked the angel of the Lord, ‘why the Lord has abandoned us?’
Judges 6:12, ‘The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.” 13 Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
We can ask ourselves, sometimes, ‘If God is with us, then why?’ This is the word of discouragement! God is with us in all through our journey of our Christian lives. He is with us all times, whether good or bad times! This is a blessed thing to know that God is with us, all the time, helping us to overcome any situation.
Apostle Paul says, Romans 8:31, ‘What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?’
We see in Psalms 23, that there are two different phases in our lives.
Psalms 23:1, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.’
One phase is, green pastures and quiet waters – There are no problems. Good times. Normal life. He is only leading us; God is with us in good times.
Second phase is, the valley of the shadow of death – All Christians who really want to follow the Lord wholeheartedly, will go through this phase. We have to go through this valley. There may be different valleys for different people. Even though when we go through this valley of shadow of death, God is encouraging us that He is with us! We will fear no evil. This is our encouragement!
In the midst of all these difficult times, through the shadow of death, also, God is encouraging us that He is with us! David says, ‘I fear no evil because God is with me’.
Psalms 84:5, ‘How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, In whose heart are the highways to Zion! 6 Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring; The early rain also covers it with blessings. 7 They go from strength to strength, Every one of them appears before God in Zion.’
The valley of Baca is the valley of weeping. But God is encouraging, that they go from strength to strength; every one of them will appear before God in Zion. The God, who is on the mountain, is still the God, of the valley. Our God, who is with us in good times, is the same God, who is with us in our bad times!
1 Kings 20:23, ‘Now the servants of the king of Aram said to him, “Their gods are gods of the mountains; therefore, they were stronger than we; but rather let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they.’
V28, ‘Then a man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because the Arameans have said, “The Lord is a god of the mountains, but He is not a god of the valleys,” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ ”
God is proving to them that He is a God of the mountains as well as the God of the valley. Even at the valley of shadow of death, the valley of Achor, there is a door of hope! It is open before us. In the midst of our valley experience, Our Almighty God is with us. All the valleys need to be lifted up! We should not be under discouraged or depressed condition, when we are going through our valley experience. Let us run this race with endurance.
Isaiah 40:4, ‘Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley;’
We see the love of God for Elijah.
1 Kings 19:7, ‘The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” 8 So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.’ V9, ‘Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
The angel of the Lord gave Elijah, food and water and he ate and drank and went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. We need to rise and shine for the Lord. We should continue our journey and reach the destination. There we will see the glory of God.
Man shall not live by bread alone but shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. By His strength, the spiritual food that He gives us- by His Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, He gives us life. We need to move forward in our Christian lives by the strength that He gives us. By this strength we need to move forward and press on and run this race. What is our destination? Our destination is to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ.
Elijah went and reached the mountain of God by the strength he received and there, the word of the Lord came to him. We need to reach to the top of the mountain. The destination is, for us, to be conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, by His power. When we meet Him, we will be like Him. This is our blessed hope in our Christian lives.
Matthew 5, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus taught the high standard of a Christian life – living in the poverty of the spirit and we will receive the kingdom of God, in our Christian lives. When we realize, that we are far away from this standard, from this top of the mountain; do not be weary and lose heart! but press on to the perfection; climb the mountain, step by step by His power. God is with us and He will strengthen us to reach the mountain, to be conformed to His likeness.
Habakkuk 3:19, ‘The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, And makes me walk on my high places.’
The Holy Spirit is encouraging us that He will strengthen us, to walk on the high places.
Isaiah 40:29, ‘He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. 30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, 31 Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.’
Those who wait on the Lord will exchange their strength. We give our human strength to the Lord and the Lord will give His strength to us. May God help us and strengthen us.
2 Timothy 4:7, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; 8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.’
As Apostle Paul says, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith’, let it be our desire also. Let us run this race with endurance. Our God is with us. This is our blessed hope. He will strengthen us. We should not be condemned or discouraged, sitting under a juniper tree.
Philippians 1:6, ‘For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.’
God has begun His good work in us and He will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. With this confidence and faith in our hearts, let us arise, be strong in the Lord and press on, to reach the destination which God has set before us.
May God bless us.
