Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Second Timothy chapter four, verse seven,

I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.

One of the descriptions of the Christian life,

according to Paul as he's in prison and getting near the end of his life,

writing this letter to Timothy, and he says,

I've fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I've kept the faith.

This is one of those places in the Bible where we are reminded that the Christian life

is pretty much never described in God's Word as a coasting down a hill with the wind

blowing through your hair and everything's just smooth and easy. That's never the description

we see of following Jesus in this world from the very beginning, Jesus says, you're going to

follow me. You must deny yourself. Take up a cross daily and follow me.

What a picture. And so we shouldn't be surprised when following Jesus in this world

involves challenges and struggles in so many different ways. When you think about the fight,

Paul has fought in so many different ways. There's the fight with sin and the flesh and the devil

in our lives every day. There's the spiritual warfare against temptation every single day,

against all the devil's schemes to keep us from God today. And tomorrow and the next day,

and the next day is why he gets to the end of this verse. He just says, I've kept the faith

of held fast and faith through all these days. And that's not to mention the suffering and the

trials that life in a fallen world bring along the way. I just think of all the different things

that people who are listening to this right now are walking through physical pain or struggles,

emotional, mental challenges. That's in our own lives. I think about people walking through

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