Have you ever tried to climb a mountain and felt as though your heart was going to pound through your chest? If you’re like me the answer is more times than I’d like to remember. One of those times was when I was returning back to my parent’s ranch, which is settled in the midst of the beautiful Rocky Mountains. I had decided to climb one of the peaks that I had conquered many times growing up. Whether it was self-deception or a shortage of oxygen that made me think I was in shape enough to start

The ultimate prize of every believer is to achieve the prize of the upward call of God, through Christ Jesus.    (tweet)

out in a full stride, I will never know. I guess you could say I was feeling rambunctious and over confident until moments later everything within me began to scream for me to quit! The more air I needed the less I was getting. My heart was thumping in my chest so loud I thought it would explode.

I quickly had an epiphany of the possible health trauma and looming defeat of not accomplishing the summit, so I adjusted from a sprint mentality to a marathon mindset. Taking one step at a time while focusing on shorter distant goals in front of me. My breathing reverted back to a reasonable rhythm and the loud pounding in my chest subsided giving me what I needed to reach the summit.

Paul writes to the Philippians in Phil 3:14 saying, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”. Paul himself had his focus on Christ and Heaven and therefore encourages the believers not to quit. He tells them to fix their mind on the goal of reaching their summit. The ultimate prize of every believer is to achieve the prize of the upward call of God, which we receive through Christ Jesus.

If we don’t quit our journey of faith we will win! That sure doesn’t mean it will be easy, on the contrary It can be very difficult at times. The road of life can be bumpy and full of potholes due to the seasonal changes we experience. As we proceed down

If we don’t quit our journey of faith we will win!   (tweet)

the road we see over and over the wreckage of different ones that have given up or lost hope along the way.

We find Paul once again exhorting the church of Galatia who were struggling in their climb with the Lord Jesus. It says in Gal 6:9, “let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart”.

The steeper the mountain and the higher we choose to go can demand more determination. A good friend of mine years ago was a cyclist and would train with some well-known world-class cyclist. Many times he has referred to “hitting the wall” when racing. He says there comes a point during your journey when your body wants you to give up and quit which they call “hitting the wall”. It’s as if you can’t go any further he says, but if you push through, you will get a second wind and strength.

Like Paul who was determined and focused on keeping Jesus as his goal along his journey in 1 Cor. 2:2 so should we also. We must come to the place that we are determined to reach the summit. It will take focus and more than likely we will need to shift some things. But if we pace ourselves for the long distance we too will get to the summit.