"Fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round-remembering that the man who fights one more round is never whipped."---James Corbett

It was 1892 when "Gentleman Jim" Corbett finally knocked out John L. Sullivan for the Heavyweight Championship title. Sullivan had retained the title for ten years. Some of these "bare-knuckled" marathon matches would last up to 75 rounds. In this particular fight, before a crowd of 10,000 in New Orleans, the two fought for 21 rounds until Corbett was finally able to defeat Sullivan to become the Champion. Corbett lost his title in 1903 and retired from boxing. The quote above is attributed to him and has been used to encourage those in despair over illness or depression. It speaks of the need to take one more step, use one more ounce of energy to accomplish your goals; not give up.

Life is filled with examples of men and women, who are able to go just a little further, stay a little longer, push on just a step more to achieve success or accomplish their goals. It is told that by the time Thomas Edison finally tried a carbonized cotton thread that burned for fifteen hours he had over 6,000 failures that did not produce an electric light bulb.

This being said, it is good for those of us with little strength to know that it isn't all up to us. As far as the Christian life is concerned, we have One who went the extra mile and did what we could never do. He was tempted, yet, did not sin. The Hebrew writer encourages us in this: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."-Hebrews 4:15-16. Just before these most encouraging verses of Scripture, we are told "let us hold firmly to the faith we profess,"-v.14. We are promised the help from heaven, but we are also taught to "hold on to our faith!" Hold on to the faith you believe in…hold on…just one more time, one more moment…just one more day!

So, you fight "one more round" as you hold on to your faith and trust in the One who has been there before you! He never gave in, gave up or gave out, but died and was resurrected for you and has entered heaven itself where he offers mercy and grace in "our time of need!"