Scripture: 1 Corinthians 9:24
“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.”
I hope for your life to be filled with God’s love and blessing. Now I want to share the grace with each of you through this message titled with “The Race of Faith.”
At the races, the first runner and the second runner experience the change of their ranking with the difference of one or two seconds or one or two points. That’s why the referees exactly the order of the ranking of each runner. It is the same with the race of our faith.
The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:24, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.” What are the standards to measure your faith in the race of faith?
The years of faith, the ranking of your titles or positions, and your duties do not decide the spiritual order. These factors have something to do with the rewards you will receive in heaven, but the most important thing in measuring spiritual order is the level of sanctification you have accomplished. It matters most how much you have cast off your sins, how beautiful and pure you have made your heart and how much you have resembled the holy and perfect God.
The second most important thing is for you to be faithful in all God’s house. It matters how faithfully you have fulfilled your duties with the sacrificial heart.
With these two standards, each individual’s faith is exactly measured without a slightest error. The spiritual order of those who have been asleep in Christ were decided, but we who are still alive can have to learn the deeds of faith the fathers of faith and make better recordings of faith.
Some of you may ask why the spiritual order will be exactly measured and given to each individual even if everyone is the child of God the same in heaven. But if you look into the Bible in detail, you can find that the spiritual order is strictly divided and given to each person in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:19, “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” And the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:40-41, “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory,” and emphasized that different glory is given to each person in heaven.
If a person who has accepted the Lord shortly before his death and another person who has been faithful to the kingdom of God with all his lives like the apostle Paul will be treated the same in heaven, is it just and fair? God lets you reap whatever you have sowed and rewards whatever you have doen fir Him. So, He says in Proverbs 8:17, “I love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find me.”
Therefore, may each of you accomplish the sanctification in your heart and faithfully fulfill all your duties so that you can be one of the greatest men in the kingdom of heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
