{"id":605,"date":"2017-02-21T05:27:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T05:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/?p=605"},"modified":"2019-04-08T15:26:54","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T15:26:54","slug":"courage-to-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/21\/courage-to-continue\/","title":{"rendered":"Courage to Continue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover is-layout-flow wp-block-cover-is-layout-flow\" style=\"background-image:url(http:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/redmond2.jpg)\"><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"\" style=\"font-size: 16px; color: #940a0a; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 75%; text-align: center;\"><em>We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold<br \/><\/em><em>our original confidence firm to the end.<br \/><\/em><em>(Hebrews 12:12-13)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>175 meters from the finish, searing pain shot down Derek Redmond\u2019s right leg. He fell in agony to the ground, his Olympic dream over. To everyone\u2019s amazement, he struggled to his feet, determined to finish the race. On one leg, he began to hop forward.<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly, a man jumped from the stands. Pushing past the security guards, he ran to Derek and put his arm around the injured athlete. They crossed the finish line together. 65,000 fans stood and roared approval. Courage!<\/p>\n<p>The man who helped him across the finish line? It was his father.<\/p>\n<p>This\u00a0Scripture en<strong><em>courage<\/em><\/strong>s us to hold fast to confidence in Christ. Along the course of our race there are many obstacle, not the least is what Hebrews calls \u201cthe sin that clings so closely\u201d (Hebrews 12.1).<\/p>\n<p>It takes two things to continue. The first is courage. We may stumble, fall, suffer hurt and setback, but then we must get up again. If we can\u2019t run, we can hop. Can\u2019t hop? We crawl. Can\u2019t crawl? God carries us.<\/p>\n<p>The second thing we need is strength and that comes from God. \u201cThe spirit of Jesus Christ helps me,\u201d says the Apostle Paul (Philippians 1:19). God is not distant. He is an ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).<\/p>\n<p>We may limp in pain part of the way, but with His help we continue. We arrive home at last. The cloud of witnesses roars (Hebrews 12:1).<\/p>\n<p>Courage!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Challenge:<\/strong> Are you injured? Fallen? Limping? In pain? It\u2019s time for courage. Draw on God\u2019s help.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prayer:<\/strong> Father, the courage I need is more than I have. Put your arm around me today. Help me to continue.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we holdour original confidence firm to the end.(Hebrews 12:12-13) 175 meters from the finish, searing pain shot down Derek Redmond\u2019s right leg. He fell in agony to the ground, his Olympic dream over. To everyone\u2019s amazement, he struggled to his feet, determined to finish the race. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/21\/courage-to-continue\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[48,49],"class_list":["post-605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obstacles","tag-courage","tag-perseverance"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/redmond2.jpg",853,432,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/redmond2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/redmond2-300x152.jpg",300,152,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/redmond2-768x389.jpg",600,304,true],"large":["https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/redmond2.jpg",600,304,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/redmond2.jpg",853,432,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/redmond2.jpg",853,432,false],"academica-featured-posts-widget":["https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/redmond2.jpg",75,38,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Guy Saffold","author_link":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/author\/guys\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we holdour original confidence firm to the end.(Hebrews 12:12-13) 175 meters from the finish, searing pain shot down Derek Redmond\u2019s right leg. He fell in agony to the ground, his Olympic dream over. To everyone\u2019s amazement, he struggled to his feet, determined to finish the race.&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836,"href":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions\/836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saffold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}