Women: Running the race well—Part 4

We’ve been talking about how to run our race of faith, specifically as women who want to live lives that are increasingly Christlike in our relationships and our sexuality. We’ve looked at throwing off sin and distractions. We’ve considered how to run with a heart that is persevering, keeping on at it when it’s tough. We looked at staying in our lane with increasing contentment in Christ.

Finally, I want to consider this: that we’ve got to run with our eyes fixed on Jesus, keeping the goal in mind. Actually, we keep our focus on Christ throughout all of these, but I want to consider specifically how to keep the goal in mind.

You know, when I moved out to Philadelphia many years ago, I drove from the Midwest, and I had a goal. I wanted to get here in two days. And there were a lot of beautiful things I saw: mountains, markers for historical monuments. But I couldn’t get off my path. I needed to stay on the highway if I was going to get here in two days. Now, those would have been beautiful things to enjoy on a vacation, or if I had more time, but I needed to keep on my path, because I had that goal in mind.

Now similarly, but really in a much more significant and profound way, we need to keep our hearts set on Christ in the now, but also on where we are going. I love what Colossians 3:1-4 says about this, and a summary or paraphrase of those verses is this: Set your heart and your mind on things above, not on things that are on this earth. And that includes, don’t get focused on your earthly journey. Paul goes on in that passage to say that when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will appear with him in glory. Christ is our life. Our lives are hidden with him.

You know, Revelation explains for us where all of human history is headed. We’re going to be gathered around the throne of Jesus, and all sin, temptation, sorrow, struggle, disappointment, it’ll all be done. It’ll be past tense, never to arise again. That’s meant to give us hope today in our battles with temptation, with discontentment, with disappointments. But we’ve got to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. We’ve got to keep that goal in mind of where this is headed.

We can run our race well as women, living lives of increasing joy and freedom in Christ, decreasingly giving way to sin, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus more and more, and less and less giving way to these things that only lead to our destruction, and our disappointment, and our discouragement. Run the race well, with your eyes fixed on Jesus.