RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Today in our devotion, I want to speak to you about Finishing Well. Often people start well in the Christian life, but they finish poorly. The Bible says in Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 1, “…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” God has a race given to us, but he wants us to finish that race and not just finish it but finish it well.
I did a grand experiment, and I said, “God, teach me.” I ran the Greek marathon, and it was my first and only marathon I’ve ever run. When I ran it, I said, “Lord, I want to learn what it means to run with endurance the race you’ve given me. Teach me the great biblical truths of the Christian life as I train and as I run this race.”
I ran the Greek marathon, and I finished, but I did not finish well. I learned some things. I learned there are three basic things that are critically important if you’re going to finish well. What I mean by “finishing well”… Let me define that for you. That means running to your full potential.  The first thing to do is you must be trained. You must train properly. You’ll never run to full potential unless you train properly. We’re trained in righteousness. That’s obeying the Word of God, going out and practicing every day. You see, I had to practice. I ran five times a week and had to practice for about six months going out there and just doing the workouts.
That’s what training in righteousness is. It’s just going out and living the Christian life. It’s putting into practice God’s Word, doing those things day-by-day that you know God wants you to do. As you practice those, you become stronger and stronger and stronger. There’s an element of training.
There’s a second thing, and I alluded to it in I think it was the very first devotion we did. That is you need refreshing. You need to drink from God’s refreshment table. There’s a fountain that flows from the throne of God, and God will refresh you. You need to drink. Well, I did both of those things in training for the Greek marathon, and they helped me. It got me 20 miles, 11 of those miles uphill. But then toward the end, the last few miles, I collapsed. I wondered, “What was it? Why did I collapse?”
There’s a third element, and without this third element, you’ll never run to your full potential. Do you know what it was? It was nutrition during the race. You see, as you run, what I didn’t know was your body is depleted of the nutritional things that feed the muscles. You have to replenish it all during the race.  There are these little nutritional substances you can take, and they replenish your glycogen, and you can continue to run with endurance and with the speed you’ve trained at. What happened was all of that broke down because I didn’t have the proper nutrition during the race. You must have nutrition during the race.
I came across the line. I collapsed. I finished, but I finished far below what I knew I was capable of. You know, the sad thing is that’s the way so many Christians are running today. Part of the reason is we’re not partaking of God’s Word daily. Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
So three things if you’re going to run with endurance. First of all, training. Daily obeying the Word of God. Secondly, drinking from the fountain that flows from the throne of God. Thirdly, partaking of the nutrition God has given you in his Word.