"Run Hard and Fast"

“Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12, The Message) 

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12, ESV)

Paul calls Timothy to fight the god fight of the faith, or as The Message paraphrases it: Run hard and fast in the faith.

Here we see the mysterious juxtaposition of how it is that we work at the faith (run hard and fast in the faith) and God works in us.  After all it was Paul who also wrote: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil 2.12-13).  We work; God works in us.  How the two come together the Scriptures leave a mystery.

John Piper put it something like this in a recent tweet:  "Preparation is essential, but it is not decisive."  We run hard and fast in the faith; God works in us.  God gets the glory; we get eternity.  Sounds good to me.