Revelation 2:26, If you can't run, then walk!

"The one who conquers and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations."

The same thought is found in Matthew 10:22 (and the parallel in Mark 13:13), "The one who endures to the end will be saved."

And in James 1:12, "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those that love Him."

In his commentary on the Gospel account of the death and resurrection of Christ, 16th-Century Presbyterian Robert Rollock gleans great encouragement for the believer from these verses.

"Look ay thou persevere; if thou may not run, go; yet, if thou may not go, fall down upon thine hands and feet, and creep as it were a snail or a worm, albeit it were but two feet in the day; and, as ever thou wouldst be safe, lie not still. It stands thee upon life and death; thou must wear away, and night and day thou goest ever to this end; and if this outward man decay, grow in the inward man; and as thou growest weak in this life, strive to be strong in that heavenly life that thou art to go to."

I know that I am not Superchristian, able to make leaps in sanctification in a single bound. No doubt, you feel that way, too. But I know that, by God's grace, I can make some advance today. And tomorrow I will be better still. As Rollock reminds us, from the verses above, "It is not said, 'He or she that runs shall be crowned,' but, 'He or she that continues to the end shall be crowned."