Heavenly Father, in Your strength I pray that I may run the race that is set before me with patient endurance, looking to Jesus, Who is the author and finisher of my faith, and the solid Rock upon which I stand. Father, I recognise that this is a spiritual race and the strength and stamina I need is not physical but spiritual - spiritual strength, spiritual perseverance and spiritual endurance.
Help me to lay aside anything and everything that hinders my spiritual progress, diverts my attention from the goal of my calling or inhibits my witness for the Lord. Thank You for the example and encouragement of the many men and women of faith, who have run the same spiritual race before me. And may their faithful witness give me encouragement and determination to follow in their steps, empowered by the strength of the indwelling Holy Spirit, to the praise and glory of God.
Sustain me I pray, and each of Your children who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, and may we all take up our cross daily, and endure the trials and tribulations that cross our path. May we do this for the heavenly joy that is set before us, knowing that Jesus Himself walked this way before us and has broken the power of sin and death in our lives, so that in His strength we too may receive the spiritual strength, perseverance and endurance run the race that is set before us. In Jesus' name,
Amen.