3 Ways To Help You Run Your Race

This is a guest post by Joelle Mobley. “I’m a sinner in need of a Savior! I love my Savior Jesus Christ, my amazing husband Mike, and our beautiful daughter Peyton Riley and handsome son Matthew Xander!” You can contact her on Twitter and on Facebook. If you are interested in writing a post for us, visit our Guest Post page. You can also view other guest posts by clicking here.

As Matthew reaches another milestone in his independence this week, I am reminded of how quickly time is going by. Time seems to be going faster and faster these days, and I am not ready for that yet! I feel like it was just yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital, so how can he already be walking, talking, and getting into everything?

I saw a hashtag the other day that rang so true to me, it said “long days, short years!” I can’t believe that Mike and I have been married for 5 years, that our daughter Peyton is almost 3 years old and that Matthew is already over a year old. I feel like it was just the other day that I graduated high school and that I was heading off for college and that was over 10 years ago!  I don’t remember it feeling like time went by that fast while I was living in the day to day, but as I look back at the years I can’t believe it has already been that long.

As I look back and try to think of all the things I’ve done and how many of those things have a Heavenly purpose, I regret to say that there are not as many as I would have hoped for. I want to hear “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21) when I see Christ face to face; I want Him to be pleased with how I lived the life He has given me. When I start to focus on the ways that I’ve messed up or how I’ve missed out on opportunities, I start to beat myself up over it, but that isn’t what Christ would want me to do.

Satan wants me to be beat myself up, count myself out, and wants me to believe the lies that he tells me about how I’ve disappointed God and how He can’t use someone like me. Christ wants me to get back up and learn from the mistakes that I have made and continue to run the race He has set before me. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Below are 3 ways to help you get back up and run your race.

Remember Who You Belong To

• Once you have confessed that Jesus is Lord and you believe in Him then you are His. (Romans 10:9-10)
• No one can take you from His hand. (John 10:27-30)
• We are God’s adopted children and therefore have inherited all that is His. (Ephesians 1:3-14) (2 Corinthians 6:18)
• We have been made right with God through the blood of Jesus, so therefore stand before Him as righteous. (Romans 3:22-26) (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Know Who You Are Up Against

• We have to remember that satan is our enemy and is out to steal from us, kill us, and destroy us. (John 10:10)
• We are up against the father of lies. (John 8:44)
• Satan is actively prowling to find someone who he can devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

Stay Focused on the Finish Line

• Fight the Good fight and stay focused on the things that truly matter. (1 Timothy 6:12)
• Resist the temptations to stray from keeping your mind on Heavenly things. (James1:12-15)
• Ask God to keep you away from temptation. (Matthew 6:13)
• Remember you are His and He will give you a way out of temptation. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
• We will stumble and fall, but we must get back up, repent, and keep walking in His grace and strength. (Psalm 37:23-24)
• Finish strong! (2 Timothy 4:7)

God is faithful to complete the good work that He has started in us. (Philippians 1:6)

So as I look to what God is calling me to do even now, I pray that I can keep my eyes focused on Him. That when I look back again after the next few years, I’ll know that I am striving to run my race well and that even when I have stumbled that I got back up and pressed on. I want Peyton and Matthew to be able to look back at the time they spend with me and say that their mommy was about the things of God and what He wanted was most important to her.

We need to remember that God is faithful to complete the good work that He has started in us and He wants us to live in the joy and freedom that He has given to us. (Philippians 1:6) (1 Thessalonians 5:16-24)