In our study of 2 Timothy 4 from last week, we read Paul’s words at the end of his life, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” I’m willing to bet that many Christians who read those words come away feeling some measure of sadness because they could not say the same if the end of their own life came into view today. Their track record has been more checkered than the Apostle Paul’s apparently was. Rather than fighting the good fight some of us may have demonstrated a habit of avoiding fights altogether, or maybe we fought bad fights. Rather than running the race some of us may have stopped striving, or, worse, we have actually been running in the wrong direction. And rather than keeping the faith some of us may have struggled to trust God along the way and have lived very inconsistently. If that’s you don’t wallow one more day in discouragement. Read Psalm 107 and be encouraged. This is a Psalm that has come to mean a lot to me personally. It talks about God rescuing people from all kinds of trouble, but the most encouraging thing is that it depicts God rescuing people who are in trouble precisely because of their sinfulness. There is hope for Christians who have a checkered, inconsistent past.