Acts 20:24 NKJV “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
Apostle Paul’s motivation from that scripture was the fact that there is a hand that came upon him and he realised and had a proper understanding that there must be a reason for God’s hand to be upon him. He had the understanding that if God can lay hold on him, then he must lay hold on the reason why he lay hold on him. To Paul, it is about running the race and finishing, meaning it about destiny/ fulfillment for him.
You need gut, grit and perseverance to survive in the jungle of life. In life, men with guts succeed more than skillful men. One of the reasons why people don’t advance in life is that they give up or get discouraged too easily. If you fail in business, there is a possibility that you may think that ministry is a safe place. Failure in business at times might be because you gave up too soon. When you think the reason why you fail in other aspects of your life is because God is calling you into ministry, then you are wrong. God doesn’t ruin peoples life to call them.
2 Corinthians 4:1-10 Explains that we have received this ministry, we faint not. And not in ministry alone, career, financial and every aspect of your life. Nobody rises as a weakling.
Paul told us that he was troubled, persecuted, struck down but not destroyed.
As a skillful person, if you don’t have grit, there is a high possibility for you remaining in one spot because everything will discourage you. Guts, grit, perseverance is important. It’s not just about vision and intelligence, it’s the ability to keep running even when the issues of life are not pleasant.
David said in Psalm 61:2 that when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
We don’t give up, it’s not in our DNA. We are more than conquerors. Victory is in our DNA.
One of the characteristics of the palm tree is the ability to survive even in drought. It does not whither. Apart from the fact that you have been saved and sanctified by his blood, you need stability, you need to stand strong just like the palm tree.
Apart from the righteousness of Christ that we have received, we need to be strong. It’s not sin that will cause a man to walk away from God, it’s a failing heart, a heart that does not even believe in the grace and the forgiveness in Christ.
We are called Soldiers. You need to gather strength. He has brought us this far and he will not abandon us. We owe our deliverance to him.
You can be helped by the Lord in different areas of your life. God can simplify what looks to be hard. There is something called quick understanding in the scripture. When we read to learn, we must understand that what we are reading is written by mortal men. We must understand that we have the Spirit of God to know those things being written by these mortal men. We must not constrain the Holy Spirit to only reading the Bible. We can pray in tongues before we read to learn even in classes. You can be helped beyond your effort and that is the grace of God.
You can be helped beyond your swiftness, smartness and strength. You can be helped. One prayer we should be praying on is that we should ask God to place His help on our skills and certificates. You need help regardless of your grade upon graduation. You can be helped.
The weakling needs help the same as the strong. He said in the psalms, that He has placed help on the one that is mighty. So the mighty can look like a weakling in the face of issue and confusion. However, He makes the weakling mighty by His help. A smart person may look like a nonentity because he lacks the help of God, so that he can cry that he needs the help of God. The focus is that we need help.
Sometimes the learned and the professors can also be confused, living empty. We should pray that God should let the help of God speak for us. We would need help for doors to be opened. We would need help in knowing someone to get something done for us. God can call such a person and bring him to the limelight. We should pray that God should multiply our skills, giftings, efforts and grades.
Let’s stand with Jesus. We have come too far to give up. You don’t need to be constantly encouraged. Help has to come from God. We will look for alternatives. Advancement isn’t out of greed and materialism. We are advancing to ensure whenever Jesus asks us how we lived we can say we ran well. We can boldly speak like Paul who said he ran his race and finished strong.
Can we also be like David who went for battle with his men but before they returned their wives and children were taken captive. David was not discouraged even while the men were ranting against him. We’d place this God before us always and we’d not be discouraged.