Should we give it our all or should we give up? Should we do our best or should we do enough to get by? These are questions that are always going though our minds. Can we do it? Are we strong enough to finish it and to the best of our ability? If only those words of doubt wouldn't enter our minds, we could do amazing things but because of those little questions we all start doubting our strength.
This morning I had decided to get up at 5:00 am, to go run 3 miles. But of course, different things lead me to staying up late, not getting in all the sleep I needed to feel rested and ready for the run in the morning. At 5:00 my alarm went off and I vigorously began searching for that device that had disturbed my wonderful rest and dreams. I was going to turn it off and go back to bed. But then those thought provoking questions started to go through my head. "Should I run? I'll just feel really tired when I could sleep longer." But of course, I wasn't going to let those thoughts keep me from not finishing my goal. So I got up put my running shoes on and headed for the treadmill. One mile went by fast and then the next but the last mile seemed to take forever and those horrible words started going though my mind, "Quit, quit, you can do the rest another day. You already did 2 miles and that's great. Who cares about the last one?" Uh, those words that rule our lives sometimes! But I kept running and it was like the closer I got to the end the more those words went through my head. I finally finished it and I had true satisfaction. I had resisted the temptation to quit and had accomplished my goal. Now your probably wondering how does running 3 miles have anything to do with giving it your all and not giving up.
Running has a lot to do with giving it your all, doing your best and not giving up until your goal is accomplished. What if when Jesus came to this earth to minister to us, He had given up in the garden or when He was in the wilderness. Where would we be now? Accomplishing small goals can lead to accomplishing even bigger ones and by doing our best we get the true satisfaction of seeing our work well done. Thanks to Jesus and His-give-it-your-all attitude, we now have the chance to spend eternity in heaven with Him. Won't you give it your all?
-1 Corinthians 9:24
