#CriticalIssues

Knowing God’s Word and following His commandments will build our character and strengthen our spiritual muscles so we avoid becoming prey for the devil. Just as lions pursue the weakest of their targeted prey, we are easy targets for the pseudo-lion, the devil (1 Peter 5:8), when we neglect character development, when we don’t make time for the reading, study, and memorization of Scripture. When we pore over God’s Word daily, though, we pace ourselves with the Alpha Lion, the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5).

Prayer is the next step. We should pray about our moral weaknesses, first acknowledging them before God and then seeking His strength and His truth.

Christ, the Word made flesh, was diligent in prayer up to the very hour when He was betrayed. Fully God and fully man, Jesus knew what obedience would cost Him, yet still He prayed for God’s will to be done (Luke 22:39–46).

Finally, character is influenced by the company we keep. Growing spiritually in a youth group and finding adult leaders to mentor and encourage faithfulness to God is key to running a good race. We find encouragement to stay the course of Christ in His body, the church (Hebrews 10:24–25). We need to avoid making excuses about how running the race with others slows us down.

These days I look forward to running. I didn’t start with any real desire to run, but with time and training, I now run with both perseverance and For the utmost pursuit pleasure. For the utmost pursuit of of Christlike character, Christlike character, we must press on. we must press on. > We must forget the failures and the successes of the past and run with obedient perseverance the race marked out for today (Hebrews 12:1–3). When we do so, we will look back at the end of our lives and see that running the race in obedience to Christ resulted in godly character that brought Him glory.

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