Scripture: Matthew 19:30
“But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.”
I wish for your life to be filled with God’s love and blessing. Now, I want to share grace with you through a message titled “The Final Victors.”
The marathon is called the “Flower of the Olympics”. Without the Marathon Run, the Olympics wouldn’t be the Olympics. As the audience anxiously watches the marathon unfold, the lead runners may be overtaken one after another as the runners fiercely compete for the front. So it is not easy to anticipate who will become the final victor for the gold medal in such a fierce race.
It is the same with those on this earth who are pressing on toward the kingdom of heaven. People who have lived Christian lives since birth or early childhood are caught up with others who began their Christian lives sometime later who are fervently running the race of faith and giving thanks to God for His saving of their eternal lives. It is just as Jesus said in Matthew 19:30, “But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.”
Whom will our God recognize as the final victor? He will recognize all those who really love God from the heart and practice His word even if they had accepted Jesus Christ at some point later than others. It really matters not how early a Christian life was started, but how cleanly and beautifully the race is run in cultivating a heart resembling the heart of the Lord.
I was thirty when I accepted Jesus Christ. For the seven years until then, I had stood at the threshold of death because of illness and disease. One day when I knelt down before God in a church, God healed me of all my diseases. I was so thankful for His grace that I endeavored myself seven times more eagerly than anyone else to live by the word of God in prayers and fasting. God was very pleased with my faith and devotional life. He called me as a minister who would lead countless souls in the way of salvation.
If you think that you are too old to receive Jesus as your Savior and begin a new life in Christ, don’t worry about it at all!. Just as the turtle finally overtook the jack-rabbit and won the race by diligently and steadfastly crawling toward the goal, anyone can reach the goal of the beautiful kingdom of heaven as a finalist if he steadily marches on towards the goal of heaven from the point when he accepts Jesus Christ.
May everything you pray and plan to accomplish this year be successful and may you magnify God through it all and love God more fervently than ever before so that you can become great in the kingdom of heaven. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
