2 Timothy 4:6–8: “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

July 17th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

This is the last chapter of what is probably the last letter the Apostle Paul wrote. As he wrote these final words to the young pastor Timothy, he had his own finish line in view. Looking back, he saw his life as having been invested in and devoted to the highest calling he could possibly have—sharing the gospel. He had “fought . . . finished . . . kept the faith” and was eagerly looking to that soon approaching day when he would physically be in the Lord’s presence. He had no regrets; there was nothing he wanted to go back and do over again, with the possible exception of the time lost early in his life, when he didn’t know the Lord.

Adam Clarke, biblical expositor, wrote at the age of 84:

I have passed through the springtime of my life. I have withstood the heat of its summer. I have culled the fruits of fall. I am even now enduring the rigors of its winter, but at no great distance I see the approach of a new, eternal springtime. Hallelujah!

The highest calling any person can attain to is that of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with a dying world.  Paul was challenging, encouraging, and cautioning Timothy—a retiring, shy young pastor, living several hundred miles east, back in the port of Ephesus—to spend his short life investing in the same mission of sharing the gospel, so that he wouldn’t have any regrets when he reached his finish line either. What a great challenge to all of us. By God’s grace and strength, we should all pour out our lives and finish our race well.

“LORD, help us to run the race well today, and by Your power, courageously accept Paul’s challenge to serve You all the days of our lives.”