SPURRED ON BY HEAVEN'S APPLAUSE

Any time that there is a contest or race for a prize, whether political, sporting, academic or otherwise, there is applause for the contestants on the part of their supporters, who are urging them on to victory, and there is even greater applause for the one who emerges triumphant.

We are in a great spiritual race. Heaven wants us to succeed. Heaven wants us to get the prize and so is spurring us on by applauding all of our spiritual efforts and endeavours.

Hebrews 12:1-4
The "great cloud of witnesses" are the heroic faithful, highlighted in Hebrews chapter 11, who have gone ahead of us.

No one is more heroic or has greater faith than Jesus, our ultimate role model. He overcame the cross and claimed the prize and applause that can only come from the Father. We must overcome sin and claim the prize and the applause that can only come from above.

Like a net that gets entangled in your legs so that you are unable to run, sin will trap you and stop you from running the Christian race.

Q. Have you resisted sin to the point of shedding blood, i.e. taking radical, uncompromising measures to change and overcome?
Q. Have you been open and honest about your struggles, or have you hidden them?

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Verse 25: The prize and crown that mean more than any other are our salvation and our eternity in heaven. The applause, approval and congratulations that we are to seek above all else, thus, are that which comes from heaven.

"Run in such a way as to get the prize", i.e. run according to the rules and regulations. We must run according to the Bible, even when compromise could win us the approval and loyalty of people around us, e.g. your boss from whom you want a pay raise, non-Christian man or woman to whom you feel attracted, authority figure from whom you are trying to escape punishment.

Q. Have you been compromising on your faith or sticking radically to Scripture?

"Do not run like a man running aimlessly." We must be directed and not aimless in how we live out our discipleship. Much of that direction comes from advice and correction.

Q. Has it been your habit to seek advice?
Q. Do you welcome correction or resent it?

"I beat my body and make it my slave." This has to do denying yourself and living a disciplined life. It is to live by conviction and not convenience.

Q. Have you been missing important meetings in the church, e.g. services, workshops, devotionals, discipling times, etc., because you find them inconvenient?

Don't look to do what is easy. Look to do what is godly.

2 Timothy 4:7,8
Run radically and righteously. Let heaven's applause spur you on, that you may fight the good fight, finish the race, keep the faith, and lay claim in the end to the ultimate prize, heaven's glorious crown.

Back to "When Heaven Applauds" page