Be Ready

In America, there are many things that are encouraged, like that we should save our best for last. I think that there are so many thing we unknowingly work into our mind. There's that last little bit that gets all the glory, we focus so much on the end. Why? Why doesn't the middle mater? Well, to God it does. God wants your best now. Why? Well, you don't knowing when your end is...your death. If you want a great end, then you need to be ready always. Be great always. You could die any time, anywhere, any day. That is why you push. That is why you give your all, so your finish is great. Maybe you'll live a long life. Maybe you won't. Only God knows that. That why you don't save your best for last...you don't know when it is. You've got to show endurance and push, doing your very best until you cross that finish line.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
Philippians 3:10-16

Paul says that he's running a race. In a race, if you're going to win you can't just push hard at the end. You have run or jog all the way. Walking is not an option if you want to win, so press on towards the goal to win the prize. God will will reward you in heaven.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27

And again, Paul says life is a race. This time, he says only one person gets the prize. Run in such a way as to get the prize. Your reward is in heaven, not on earth.


I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.
Acts 20:24


I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. 
2 Timothy 4:7-8

Paul has now finished his race in this verse. You should race in such a way that when your race almost over, you know that there is a crown for you in heaven. 

since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 12:1-3

You've got a race marked out for you, so run hard. And the best way to run hard is to fix our eyes on Jesus. So let's do so. And think of Jesus, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
This race is something worth fighting for, so stop saving your best for last.
As a Christian, your job and duty is to do things differently. People don't want to race hard until the end, they want to race hard at the end. If you want a crown, that's not how you race. That's how things have to happen. If you want to come to heaven having accomplished nothing, then you can walk across the finish line, but do you want to spend all of eternity knowing you did nothing with you life. Our minds cannot comprehend eternity, but imagine spending more than one trillion year in a place that is perfect and you get to Jesus and you have nothing to give back to him. Nothing at all. You will be in heaven, but don't you think you'd feel left out?

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
James 1:12

There are tons of people wearing crowns as God gives them out to his faithful servants and you get nothing. People are telling about everything they've done for God and why they got there crown and you have nothing to tell.
Sure you'd be in heaven, but wouldn't you want a crown to adorn your head that shows what you've done for God? 
So be Ready. Know that you will get a crown in heaven. If you aren't sure, then figure out how to get one of God's crowns. Stretch before your race. Be totally prepared, and then when that race starts (If your a Christian, it already has) Run! Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. So train! Go! Fight! Win! You need to always be prepared for death know that you'll have a crown in heaven and if you aren't prepared death, then you might die unprepared. You might die and not receive a crown. So always be Ready.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the

author and perfecter of our faith

...Consider him...so that you will

not grow weary and lose heart.

Hebrews 12:2a;3a,c