The Fear of Losing

What if the fear of losing is keeping you from running the race God has called you to?

In this episode of Running Our Race, we examine how fear, regret, and the pursuit of temporary success can distract us from living with eternal purpose. Through Jeremiah 8:6, we see the danger of rushing through life without stopping to examine our hearts, while Ecclesiastes 9:11 reminds us that success isn't determined by our strength, speed, or abilities. Instead, our lives are ultimately in God's hands.

We'll also reflect on Psalm 19:5, which paints the picture of an athlete eager to run the race. God hasn't called us to live in fear of failure but to faithfully make the most of the time He has given us. Rather than chasing earthly gain or dwelling on what we've lost, we're invited to keep our eyes on Christ and run with joy, trusting Him with the outcome.

Reflection Questions:

• Is the fear of losing keeping you from stepping out in faith?
• What temporary pursuits have distracted you from what has eternal value?
• If today were your last opportunity, how would you spend the time God has given you?
• Are you running your race with fear, or with the confidence that comes from trusting God?

"Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong... but time and chance happen to them all." — Ecclesiastes 9:11

We can't control how long our race will be, but we can choose how we run it. Don't let the fear of losing keep you from living the life God has called you to. Run with purpose, steward your time well, and fix your eyes on what will last forever.

Transcript

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Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Running a Race. Today's episode is titled Fear of Losing. I'm just gonna go ahead and jump right in. Start out with Jeremiah 8.6. It says, I have paid attention and listen, but they have not spoken rightly. No man relents of his evil, saying, What have I done? Everyone turns his to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle. When I was thinking about this, and just reading about it, in the fact that it was coarse, um, as in like a race course. We refer to it as running our race uh race of life, right? Uh everyone turns to his own course. And those ideas together, it really just helped me understand that like people we can follow other people's ideas, but it may not lead us into the correct idea or the winning idea, we could say, because of the title. Um But if we see here it says they have not spoken rightly, so that means if they're not doing what's right, they're doing what's wrong. And me personally, I think when I've seen people doing wrong things, you know, it it has discouraged me to a certain extent, especially considering this race, right? But we also hear it all the time on social media, you know, sometimes you'll be scrolling and they'll be like, Oh, this is the reason I left uh church or I left uh Christianity. And it's like okay, like it's like okay, like I understand where you're coming from, but just because that is the course that someone else is um running, not necessarily the course that you're supposed to take, and of course, we have to think about it um seeing other people lose or give up on their race, it's disheartening, you know, it's disheartening to see it, but we can't let that be our perception. So this is like um an episode of I titled it Fear of Losing, but the point of it is to inspire um anyone who's watching, anyone who's listening, to not lose and to not give up or to not um just throw the towel or follow what's trending because other people are doing it, you know. It says here, you know, everyone turns to his own course. Man, if we turn to our own course, what what is that gonna lead us to? It's not gonna lead us to our original objective. And um with with that being said, um I believe I've read this verse before, and if not if I haven't, then I've definitely come across it before. And it's Ecclesiastes 9 11, and it says, Again, I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happened to them all. And into the last one about how uh everyone chose their own course. Here we see time and chance happen to them all. When I think about that specific part of the verse, I think about how a lot of people, and I know I've touched this point before, think I can sin today, repent tomorrow, uh, get right with God tomorrow. Uh I can go clubbing today, I can go uh, you know, do any amount of thing that I feel like I could do today, and by chance I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and I'm gonna be able to repent for it, I'm gonna be able to make up for it, I'm gonna get right with God, and everything's gonna be good. But the fact is, we really don't know. He could come right now in this very moment, and I live with that consciousness, like, yeah, I could do something right now, and it could alter my entire race, my entire course, tying it into these last two verses, right? But what good is that if I really don't know what the next second is, what the next moment is, you know, I could throw it all away, throw you know, throw all my progress away in the race. Um, I could lose my race and just for a temporary moment. Um, even though you know in the beginning of this verse, it says that the race is not to the swift, so it's not so much about how fast I'm running my race, but about if I'm persevering, if I'm choosing what's right, if I'm going out of my way to not choose to sin, to not choose to stray, to not choose my own course, but to follow the actual right course. When we think about um, I didn't put this verse in, but we think about the the Bible verse that says uh the two pathways, right? One is narrow, one is um wider. Um there's not a lot of people in the narrow path, but there is a lot of people on the wider path. Fortunately, in this generation, when you go on social media, you see a lot of people going the wide way and not the narrow way. You see a lot of people leading people who are saying that they're Christians, and unfortunately, they're leading them the wide way, they're not leading them the narrow way. What I want to bring this all toward is that we have to make the most of the time that we do have. Um, we really don't know, like I said before, how much time we have, but the race is not to the swift, it's about persevering. Just as the final thing to say, I have Psalms 19:5, and it says the sun comes out like a bridegroom for from his bedroom. He rejoices like an athlete eager to run a race. To bring this to a conclusion, we should rejoice. We should be eager to run our race. We shouldn't have that constant, what if we lose? What if in this moment I just choose to to to go off course and do what whatever I want, um, pleasures of this world, focus on the negativity, see how much I can acquire on earth before Jesus comes back. Like, yes, you know what, have goals, have things that you want to accomplish in life, but don't put those things at such a high place in your life that you lose the race that really matters. Maybe the race is not to the swift, but we have to keep running with perseverance. Perseverance is what is gonna get us to become the winners that we were called to be. God didn't make you to be a loser, God didn't make you to stay uh trapped in mentalities of this world or stray off course. God made you for so much more, and I just want to leave that in your hearts today. And I pray that this episode is a blessing. And thank y'all for tuning in, and I'll catch y'all on the next one.