Pathway

2 Tim. 4:⁷ (NIV) “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

We will kick off today’s devotional with the final thought from yesterday, which is, the race of life is not a competitive event to see who comes first, but an endurance run to see who finishes well. 2 Tim. 4:⁷ (VOICE)“…I have stayed on course and finished the race…” Paul’s race was personal to him, his own race. It will interest you to know that if you finish your race well, you have come first as far as God is concerned. Yesterday, we talked about the fitness walk. Guess what? Some people will not show up because they are more concerned about who is running and if they can win. Show up and run your own race; it is not about who is there or who comes first. Refusing to run or refusing to show up is a loser’s mentality. When you show up and you finish, you are a champion in the eyes of The One who matters most.

As far as God is concerned, life is about finishing well. The Kingdom of God is all about cooperation and not competition. You cannot compete with the people you are meant to be collaborating with. God wants us to leverage our strengths and pull together. We are better together. It is about cooperation; it is about different strengths coming together. Years ago, there was a location we used to use for the church. In that location, we had air conditioners everywhere – split units and a few window units. But we had to move and in the new location, we did not need those air conditioners at the phase we were in. There were about twenty-two air conditioners or more in total. So, we put them in storage, hoping that when we build, we will reinstall them because we bought them brand new. There was no point in buying new air conditioners.

While driving by, I noticed that another church had taken the previous location and every time I passed by, I wondered how they were coping. The structure is kind of enclosed and the new church had no air conditioners. I know how hot that place can be. Then it dawned on me – you have air conditioners in storage and your brothers and sisters are sweating. Does that even make sense? So, we called the Pastor and gave him all the air conditioners. I have never seen this man before that day, and I have not seen him afterward. The Pastor was amazed, “Who does this? Pastors in my own denomination will not do this because we are all competing.”

My response was, “No, we are not competing!” I showed him a large expanse of land and said, “If we have an auditorium that is as big as this, it will be filled with people in Jesus Name.” He responded, “Amen!” I said, “As much as it is filled to capacity, there will be people out there that I cannot reach, people that you can reach. If I empower you to reach them, it is still a win for God’s Kingdom.” We are better together. We need to begin to see things as God sees them otherwise, we will enter a place God has not sent us where we begin to run other people’s races and compete with people we should be collaborating with.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, please help me see things as God sees them so that I can follow my own course and finish my race well, in Jesus Name. Amen!