Finishing Strong

'...I have finished my course...' 2 Timothy 4:7
The course God sets before us is seldom easy. Running it takes commitment. James MacDonald says, 'I've lived long enough to know men and women whose lives were sold out to God a few years ago, but who've since walked off the track... gone AWOL... lost their longing for God. Fear of following in their footsteps haunts me... and it should you, too... The faithfulness of my walk with God depends on my willingness to stay in a relationship with Him. I never want to lose the grip His greatness has on my life and the privilege it is to... serve Him till the day I'm welcomed into His presence. That passion compels me. It keeps me honest and humble... the last thing I want to do is crawl across the finish line a defeated, derailed Christian, or worse - give up the race before my life's over. I want to break that tape with arms high, my face to the sun.' Paul said, '...I have finished my course... Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown...' Notice, courage plus endurance plus faithfulness equals reward. Photographer Jacob Riis said, 'When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps 100 times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow it will split in two, and I know it wasn't the last blow that did it, but all the blows that have gone before.' God's Word is '...a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces...' (Jeremiah 23:29 NKJV). So, '[hold] fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ [you'll] have reason to glory because [you] did not run in vain...' (Philippians 2:16 NAS).