The 2012 Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to take place in London from the 27th of July to the 12thof August 2012. All the contestants have plans to bring the gold home; that’s what they have all been training for. This will be no place for the lazy, the players for this contest have been encouraged by their trainers but it will take more than encouragement to win. There has been much preparation, discipline, self denial and self control and the commitment has been made to do their absolute best. These are the rules if you plan on winning. Just a minute; I’m not going to the summer games as a player or even as one sitting in the crowd, the best I’ll do is watch some of the games on the T.V. As I think about those games I am reminded of Hebrews chapter 12 where the writer tells his readers that there is a great cloud of witnesses in the grand stands. The players have gotten rid of the weights that would hold them back and the sin that so easily distracts them. With patience they are to run the race that is set before them and just as in any race they are to have in view the finish line; but here in this chapter it’s Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. As we Christians run this race that is set before us it will take dedication, commitment, patience, self denial and self control. When you got up this morning what did you see? Was it just another day with the same routines; or did you say to yourself wonder what the Lord will bring my way today? Are you looking for it? Will you know it when it arrives? What are you expecting? If you say nothing then why not take the time to ask the Lord to show you what He wants you to do today. A few years ago I started leaving home each morning knowing that sometime during the day the Lord has something or someone He wants me to spend time with. I call them appointments from my Heavenly Father. I don’t know when or where or what time they will be but they come each and every day. It may be a phone call or a face to face meeting with someone; I don’t know, I just want to be available. I don’t want you to think that I am so patient and self-disciplined that I never get ants in my pants. That being interpreted means having no patience; I can’t see waiting or killing time when I could be somewhere else. It could be and has been in the past that the Lord had me waiting for someone; in other words I was early for the appointment. In John chapter 4 Jesus is setting at a well waiting on a woman; He was early for the appointment, so sometimes we are to just stop and wait; that’s patience. Why don’t you look at this day a little different; it’s you sitting at the well waiting on a person whom God will use to change a life forever!
