Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Heb 12:1

Scripture says that God is love and His kind of love never fails. Not only that, He’s perfect, everlasting and without beginning or end.  That means He doesn’t or can’t quit either.  In today’s message, may we take a look at the advantage that comes with an honest relationship with this awesome God that those who believe…call Father.

Growing up, athletics was my passion.  All sports were attractive and fine with me; both as a spectator or participant.  As a player or participant, my mother, was always my biggest and most loyal fan.  There was one funny story and a profound lesson to go with it that I’ll never forget. It was during my first attempt at running a half marathon in New Bedford, Massachusetts some forty-five years ago.

Not really prepared by training, pacing, strategy, or in knowledge of proper equipment, I naively set out over the city-wide course with a bunch of other runners on a very cool and blustery day in March.  When my mother got there to root me on, she positioned herself at the finish line.  Later, she told me she thought she arrived too late and that I must have won.  Why?  Because old women and children were crossing the finish line and she hadn’t seen any sign of me.

Well, for miles her “champion” was agonizing with side pains and trudging along with what seemed like hundred pound feet. Only one thought rattled in my mind — Don’t quit.  Praise the Lord, although people finished telescope distance ahead of me, I finally made it alive without stopping or quitting. So where is the profound lesson?

From a real runner’s standpoint, one way to assess my performance (with old women and children whipping me) was that I was a dismal failure.  For me, it was more than that.  I won because I didn’t quit, and it serves as a personal and practical application to the point of this story.

In a far more significant way, as we run our race over the course of life this week, we need God’s never-failing, never-quitting Holy Spirit to assist us in overcoming the stitches and heavy feet of personal challenges.  When we run with and for Almighty God, we win.  Remember, before you put on your running shoes, look up and know that with Him in your nature, you may fail here and there, but quitting isn’t in you.

1 Cor 9:24-27; Josh 1:9; Gal 6:9; Ps 27:14; Deut 31:8; Phil 1:6; Josh 1:5