OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL - TUESDAY- 26/11/2013 - THE NATURE OF OUR RACE BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE

THE NATURE OF OUR RACE

MEMORY VERSE

 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Romans 8:25

READ

Romans 8:24-25

Romans 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

Romans 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

MESSAGE

To win a race as an athlete, you have to understand the nature of the race. Know that we were set on a marathon the day we were saved. Every race has its guiding rules. If you run a marathon the way you ought to run a 100 metres dash or relay race, you will definitely lose steam long before the finishing line. You need patience in this race. Hebrews 12:1 says,

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Since our calling into this race is a calling into a long haul, God in His infinite mercy has designed that everything we need for the journey is made available and spread out at strategic spots along the journey. This is why for example He does not expect you to know the whole Bible in a day, week or year. As you take time to be with Him, He will guide you and give you revelations progressively. To this end, Paul says we know in part (1 Corinthians 13:9). We cannot know everything in one day. And Isaiah 28:10 says,

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

Some people are too much in a hurry in their relationship with God. As far as they are concerned, God is too slow for their liking. They want everything now. In their haste, they want to change their marathon into a short dash. Of course you know this is not possible since God is the One who set up the race. Find out, such people start with so much zeal, fire and heat. They want everything now. As long as God is doing their bidding by giving them everything immediately, there will be no problem; but the day God says, Take it easy, son: your time is not my time, they will begin to wonder how slow God is. If God wanted a dash, most believers would have lived for maximum of one year after they were saved. But beloved, it is not a dash! This is why you must cultivate the virtue of patience. You must learn to have what you want in His time and not yours. Are you disappointed at God's timing? Sorry about that: it is occasioned by the nature of the race we are called to run.

KEY POINT

You can never know more than the One who designed the race and called you on board.