A gun is about to go off and a race is about to begin. This race is not a competetion with others in the body of Christ, it is a race of which Jesus is our pace car and we are going to have to follow Him. He will set the pace and we must be able to stay in stride with His pace. To do this, we have to cast off something from our own lives that in the past have slowed us down. Everyone one of the twelve disciples, who became apostles had to cast something off to follow Jesus. Matthew had to cast off tax collecting; Peter, James, John and Andrew had to cast off fishing; Thomas had to cast off doubt; what you have to cast off will be unique to you, but it must be cast off so we can all run this race with Jesus.

Hebrews 12:1-2 exhorts us by saying, “we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus had to cast things off as well, He had to cast of the shame of the cross. I am not sure what God is calling you to cast off, but you do and it is time to cast it off because the gun is about to go off and we are about to run a race of glory with the King of kings and Lord of lords. We will need stamina, resilience, and flexibility to run this race God is inviting us into. The apostle Paul said, “I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

We are at the starting line of a marathon, the gun is about to go off and we are about to follow the pace of Jesus in this race, I pray you cast off everything that has hindered you so you can join this race, for it is going to be a race for the ages.