I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
– 2 Timothy 4:7
What a description of the Christian life according to Paul. He’s in prison and getting near the end of his life, writing this letter to Timothy. 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 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.
2 Timothy 4:7 Teaches Us to Persevere Through Trials
From the very beginning, Jesus says, “If 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, the flesh, and the devil in our lives daily. There’s spiritual warfare against temptation every single day. Against all the devil’s schemes to keep us from God today, tomorrow, the next day, and the next day. It’s why he gets to the end of this verse, he just says, “I’ve kept the faith. I’ve held fast in faith through all these days.”
That’s not to mention the suffering and the trials that life in a fallen world brings along the way. I think of all the different things that people who are listening to this right now are walking through. Physical pain or struggles, emotional, and mental challenges that are in our own lives. I think about people walking through challenges in family, work, and church, and so many different facets of our lives. Indeed, this is a fight for faith on a daily basis. This is a race we’re running. And I just want to encourage you today to keep running the race. Keep fighting the fight. And to do so not in your own strength.
2 Timothy 4:7 Encourages Us to Complete our Ministry in Christ
This is where my family’s working on memorizing the armor of God together in Ephesians 6. That first verse in Ephesians 6:10 says, Be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might. And then it goes on to talk about the fight against spiritual warfare in our lives. But we do so not in our own strength, but in the strength of God’s might, which is never-ending, which is all-encompassing. He is omnipotent. He is almighty, and he gives us strength to fight the good fight today, keep running the race today, and to keep the faith all the way to the end.
So God, I pray this over my own life. I pray this over every single person listening right now, that you would help us today by the strength you provide, by the new mercies you give us. Help us to fight the good fight today against sin, against temptation, amidst struggle and challenges that we’re walking through. God, please help us to fight the good fight of faith today by the strength of your might in us.
This Verse Teaches Us the Importance of Perseverance in Faith
God, please help us to finish the race today, just today, even to lay down our head on a pillow tonight having finished the race today, faith for the spread of the gospel in the world through our lives. Help us to run this race today, and to sleep tonight and get up and run again the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and to keep the faith all the way to the end.
God, we pray for your preserving power in our lives today and every day amidst all of the spiritual warfare around us, all of the things we walk through in this fallen world. And God, help us to fight the good fight of faith, not just in our own hearts, but for the sake of others. God, please help us to engage in spiritual battle for people around us. Help us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to lead them to Jesus. We pray for the people in our homes, our schools, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our communities, who don’t know Jesus. God help us to fight the fight of faith for their sake and for the sake of people around the world.
Prayer for the Rajbansi People
Lord, we pray for the Rajbansi people of India and Bangladesh, 6.7 million Bengali speakers, Hindu men and women and children, worshiping all kinds of different gods, and have for centuries been under the sway of spiritual blindness that has kept them from seeing the light of the glory of Jesus. God, we pray for the salvation of the Rajbansi people. We pray that you would send laborers to the Rajbansi people, that they might hear the gospel and that they might be saved from their sin and restored to a relationship with you and redeemed and transformed by your love and your grace and your mercy for all of eternity.
Oh, God, as long as we have breath in this world, help us to fight this good fight, to finish this race, and to keep the faith all the way to the end, including today. In Jesus’ name, we pray, according to 2 Timothy 4:7. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
