LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Life is hard, and it’s even harder when we have misplaced faith. We may not believe that our faith is misplaced. We have faith in Jesus Christ to save us from our sin and to grant us eternal life. But is our faith in Jesus Christ to save us exclusive or is it inclusive with faith in things of the world? Are we running the race of life with one goal in mind: being found faithful to Jesus Christ? Or does the race of our life include side roads into worldly goals?
In the history of the starting of the church, in the book of acts chapter 20, the apostle Paul is speaking to the elders of the church at Ephesus and he tells them this.
“And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
Here in this passage we see the apostle Paul describing the race that he told Timothy he had finished. And it involves several things that we must carefully consider.
- The first requirement to running a race for Christ well is to sacrifice all your other goals and value systems and focus completely on following Jesus. Paul said in Hebrews chapter 12 that if we’re going to run the race well with endurance we have to lay aside every weight that would hinder us. Imagine you’re watching the Olympics and it’s time for the 1500 meters race. One of the contestants, who had always been a football player, decides to wear all of his equipment to run the race. I guarantee you he will lose. And we will not run the race of life well if we don’t lay aside all the former things we wanted and focus only on wanting Christ’s purpose for our lives. Paul said he did not account his life for anything of value nor did he consider anything precious to himself, except finishing the course that Christ had laid out for him. So ask yourself, “Am I carrying around personal goals, dreams, and burdens that make it difficult to run faithfully the course that Jesus has for me?”
- The second requirement is to get rid of the sin which clings so closely to us as Paul says in Hebrews. I think we take sin too lightly. We justify little sins. We take credit for conquering the big ones but we don’t think God is concerned with our little ones. We are being lied to in our spirit if we think such a way. Those sins which cling to us, that we think are important to our identity and our value, must be destroyed and we must let go of them, or we cannot run a righteous race for Jesus Christ.
- The third requirement is to set the right goal. There are three elements to the goal that Christ wants us to set. We must look to him and him alone for the direction of our race. We must stay focused on the joy that we will have when we meet him face to face or we will not have any endurance. And we must choose to live our lives according to the course that he has laid out for us.
Spend some time today reviewing these things. Have you surrendered every weight that would keep you from running a race well for Christ? Are you surrendering to the Holy Spirit’s victorious power in your life to conquer the sins that cling to you? And have you set the right goals by focusing on Jesus Christ and how he has called you to live?
My prayer is that you will run your race faithfully.
Pastor John
