When in you’re in the middle of the race, it can seem hopeless.

Have you ever been doing something and it seems like no matter what you do, you just can’t get ahead?  Perhaps it’s in your job or with your finances, but regardless of effort, you just don’t seem to be making progress.  It can be even harder when we’re talking about your spiritual life.

There’s an unspoken expectation we Western Christians have: we expect our faith in Jesus to be a magic token we can play when life is tough.  Almost as if the Lord somehow “owes us” because we’re Christian.  Oh, we may not say it out loud but on the inside…we’ve got our hands on our hips, looking up at Heaven saying, “Really?! Aren’t you supposed to show up?”

All of us Christians have been there if we’re honest and the reason we find ourselves there is not as obvious as we might feel.  We feel like we’re in that position because God has somehow slipped up.  In reality, we’re there because we’re not home yet.  The final word hasn’t been given.  The Lord hasn’t written the last sentence of our story yet.

Perhaps today, you need reassurance from Psalm 92:6-11:

 Senseless people do not know, fools do not understand,
that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish,
they will be destroyed forever.
But you, Lord, are forever exalted.
For surely your enemies, Lord, surely your enemies will perish;
all evildoers will be scattered.
You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured on me.
My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.

Dear one in Christ, your future is bright.  Even if everything in this world collapses on you—and I hope it doesn’t, but even if it does—you are anointed by God Almighty with the assurance of an eternity in Heaven with our Savior.

All the difficulties you face, all the setbacks you feel, all the pain you bear…you have already defeated it through Jesus.  You have already won.  You are walking through the valley now, but the mountain of God stands before you.

This is the certainty of the Psalmist.  Godless people may flourish here in this life, but the certainty of Scripture is clear: their rejection of God’s righteousness has already determined their destruction.  Our eyes and ears have witnessed the truth that ultimately the sinful and unrepentant have only one destiny: ultimate death.

But we, dear one in Christ, can rest in the eternal exaltation of our Lord.  He has won not only the battle, but the entire war.  Hold on.  Keep running.  And most of all: look up.