When the Race is Complete
I do hope you've enjoyed looking at the song with me, friends. It's deep and it's beautiful, and it's meant a lot to me to look closely at these words. We're going to do verse four and chorus 4 together today because they are so closely linked. Listen to these words: "With every breath I long to follow Jesus, for He has said that He will bring me home. And day by day I know He will renew me until I stand with joy before the throne." Such good words.
Longing for Jesus
The verse starts by saying "with every breath I long to follow Jesus." Notice that word long. Not "I know that I should, but I don't really want to," but "I long to." I desire Him so deeply and I desire to become like Him. Do you have that desire, friends? If not, pray for it. Spend more time looking at Jesus in the Gospels, and I know you'll long to be more like Him.
Daily Renewal
The songwriter says, "for He has said that He will bring me home." That's our hope, isn't it? That one day we will be home with Him. But in the meantime, the song says, "day by day, I know He will renew me."
Day by day, God renews us. It is His sustaining grace that gets us through day after day after day. He will renew us until, as the last line says, "I stand with joy before the throne." God keeps us going until that day when we stand with joy before His throne.
Christ in Me
Then the last chorus just sums it up beautifully: "To this I hold: my hope is only Jesus. All the glory evermore to Him." Is that your cry today? All the glory in my life to Him. Everything is about Jesus and Him getting the glory. That is a great line to sing.
Then comes possibly the greatest line in the song: "When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me." Friends, when we've finished our race and we see Him face to face in front of the throne, what are we going to say? "Yes, Lord, look what I've done"? I don't think so. I think when we see God face to face, we're actually going to fall and say it was only You who got me through. It was only You, "yet not I, but through Christ in me."
