Acts of Grace 28
VICTORY IN THE RACE OF TIME
By Pastor Henry

The first half of the year is over. Have you fallen short of your goals? The race is not over yet – you can still accomplish what you missed out earlier and have victory in the remaining half of the year!

July marks the second half of the year. As in everything in our lives, the second half is more important than the first. Why? Because the second half is where we get to accomplish all that we could not accomplish in the first half of the year. In a football match, the second half of the game is more important and more exciting than the first half, even though in the second half everybody is more exhausted, tired and have run out of energy. For it is in the second half that the teams get to achieve the critical goals within the time that is left.

Right now we are in the womb of the second half of the year. And so we need to pray. We need to take stock. We need to ask ourselves: are we focused? Are we going anywhere? You ask some people, “How are you?” and they reply, “Still surviving.” You know what? That is existence! We don’t want to just exist. We have a God-given assignment to accomplish and this assignment gives us a sense of fulfillment, a sense of achievement, a sense that we have run a race and finished the course.

And so you find throughout scripture there is a reference to a race. A reference to a prize and a goal. Of completing what we have started and finishing what we have already began. There is a sense of planning, a sense of purpose and design. In the second half of the year, we have got to come to a conclusion and bring completion to many areas of our lives.

So I wish to remind you now that you should have goals. You should have plans. You must be at the stage where you can ask God, “Lord, how do you see me? Show me your report card about me, O Lord, let me know how I can overcome my weaknesses. Show me things I can accomplish in life so that I will have a sense of accomplishment, a sense of having finished my tasks and reaching my goals.”

Do you know that only 4 percent of human beings on planet Earth ever achieve their God-given dreams and hopes? Most don’t even believe they could ever achieve them. So I want to encourage you and remind you of your life’s assignment. I encourage every one of you to begin to look into your lives as the Lord will have you look. You are not in this world by chance. You are here because God has a plan and a purpose for you, not only in this world but in the hereafter. There God will reward you according to what happened on this planet.
This world is your classroom and the people that God has put into your classroom are very important. Your family is a classroom God has chosen. The church, the fellowship, those you work with, those you play with – all these are different classes where we learn different things to prepare us for eternity. The grave is not the end.

So I challenge you to ask God what your assignment is so that you can fulfill it. What is your focus? What is your goal? What is your plan? What is your dream? Be among the 4 percent of humanity that ultimately accomplishes their God-given dreams and hopes. So when the time comes, we can look back and say, like the apostle Paul, “I have finished my task. I have run my race according to the rules and laws. Through it all, I have kept the faith and now I am ready to go where God takes me.” A sense of achievement. A sense of fulfillment. A completeness.

When Jesus hung on the cross, He said to the Father, “It is finished.” Let us take advantage of the time we have right now to finish the tasks and goals that God has given us to accomplish this year - before the year ends. Then we can truly take pleasure in the victory of finishing the race God has set out for us! Hallelujah!