I looked again and saw under the sun that the race [does] not [belong] to the swift, the battle [does] not [belong] to the mighty, food [does] not [belong] to the wise, wealth [does] not [belong] to the intelligent, and success [does] not [belong] to the skillful, for time and chance befalls all of them.

"If you run with foot soldiers and they have made you weary, then how will you compete with horses? If you have fallen in {a peaceful land}, then how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?

So run

Therefore I run in this way, not as [running] aimlessly; I box in this way, not as beating the air.

Now I went up [there] because of a revelation and laid out to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles, but in private to the influential people, lest somehow I was running, or had run, in vain.

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

holding fast to the word of life, for a source of pride to me in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I have fought the good fight, I have completed the race, I have kept the faith.

Therefore, [since] we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, putting aside every weight and {the sin that so easily ensnares us}, let us run with patient endurance the race that has been set before us,

Blessed [is] the person who endures testing, because [when he] is approved he will receive the crown of life that he has promised to those who love him.

I am coming quickly! Hold fast to what you have, so that no one may take away your crown.