Run Your Race and Don't Look Back

"You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn't God, for He is the one who called you to freedom. This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough!"

Galatians 5:7

Doesn't it seem like it's so much easier to get off track in our journey with God than to keep going? There are always a million things trying to get our attention can capture our hearts. In fact, in Mark 4 Jesus talks about how easy it is for this to happen. People get the Word in them get excited about God and to do awesome things do Him, but because of the condition of their heart they get off track in their journey with God.

• Some people hear the Word and ignore it

• Some people hear the Word, receive it with joy, but don't build deep roots and fall away as soon as problems of persecution comes

• Some people hear Gods word but it gets crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the lust of the flesh, so no fruit is produced.
  

In the verse in Galatians it says that a little yeast spreads through the whole batch of dough. As I've been growing up spiritually I've realized that if we open a door, even a little bit, to anything that God hasn't led us to, it will lead us off track. Maybe we think God's word isn't true so we ignore it, maybe we get persecuted a little bit or run into so problems and we draw back in fear and give in to the pressures of pleasing others, or maybe we get so busy in our lives that we're constantly worrying, constantly wanting to chase things that will never fill the void in our hearts, or we just aren't willing to give up short term pleasure for long-term joy.

However there is one more condition of the heart:

• Those who hear and accept God's word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!

I want to be someone who produces so much fruit in my life that it is ridiculous. I know if I am ever going to do that I am going to have to stay on the path God is leading me down. I've gotten of track dozens of time, but I refuse to not make the right corrections in my life and get right back on track. I will run my race and I know that when I look back on my life I'll be able to say that I fought the good fight of faith and I've finished my course. I'll close with these verses in Hebrews to encourage you:

Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

Hebrews 12:1,2