A Prayer About Running The Race

A prayer about Running The Race - Stripping off the weights

DEAR LORD,

This metaphor is appropriate to my life. I know that in a race, the crowds can be a tremendous encouragement to runners to push forward. And runners’ outfits vary with the weather; they wear the most efficient clothes so they won’t be unnecessarily hindered or slowed. I know that my life-race is more like a marathon than a sprint, a contest of endurance, so I should be prepared to go the distance. But even knowing this, I consciously or unconsciously add weights—financial entanglements, relational issues, and trip-up sins. No wonder I can feel as though I’m running in place. Sensitize me to those sins, and help me remove those weights and not add others. Give me awareness of the crowd cheering and urging me on—saints of old who have successfully completed the course. And keep my focus on Christ, who ran this race and is running every step with me.

Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Hebrews 12:1-2