When life is pushing and pulling us in every direction, we must have the tenacity and strength to continue on. It is easy to quit, especially when things are going wrong. It does not take much effort to throw in the towel when life and all of its troubles seem to be more than we can handle. But I would encourage us today to continue in our faith, trust God, and never ever give up, no matter what. All of us will have times in our lives when we will feel that enough is enough, but prayerfully, when those times come, we will resolve to say, “Lord, I’m going to hang in there because you have brought me too far to turn around.” In Philippians 3:14, we find these words:

“I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

Paul said in verse 13 that he is “…forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead…”The image of a race is laid out with all the details. Paul is confident that he is going to finish the race and he is not going to quit, for he wants to receive the heavenly prize that is at the end of the goal line. His persistence, tenacity, strength, and his faith have lined up with his commitment. Prayerfully, we have all of the elements of a winner: we are not exhausted, but we are going to finish what we started. Never give up!