Run for Your Life

I watched this video today and it resonated in my heart. It touched on a part of my heart that has been challenged since I've returned from Honduras. While I was there, we would have 2 or 3 church services a day. By the end of the day, I felt completely poured out. All that was in me, I had poured out for the people of Honduras. And, it was a requirement - a profound necessity - to fill back up on the Word of God, prayer, and time in His presence. It wasn't an option. It was as voluntary as breathing. We had a good deal of "down" time, but it was important to spend that time filling back up in order that we could pour ourselves out.

Since I have been home, I haven't reached that point of being poured out. It has broken my heart to realize this. It should feel as necessary as breakfast to dive into the Word in the morning. I should feel that hunger and thirst as if it were time for lunch in the middle of the day. And, in the evening, I should long for the Word of God and His presence as I would for the final meal of the day. I want this kind of life. I want to run the race in such a way that I require the Daily Bread of the Word of God. I don't want it to ever feel like an option for me. I want to pour out all I'm given and then return to the feet of Jesus for more.

Reading Hebrews 12, I see a training manual of sorts for running this race.

v1: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

v2: looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

v3: Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

v7: It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

v11: For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

v12: Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees

v13: And make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

v14: Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

v15: See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no "root of bitterness" springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled

v28: Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

v29: For our God is a consuming fire.

I want to be able to say, with Paul, that "whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness form God that depends on faith - that I may know Him and the power of His Resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the Resurrection from the dead" (Philippians 3:7-11)

So, RUN - RUN FOR YOUR LIVES oh, Children of God! It's time for us to get serious about our faith. None of us knows what tomorrow brings. Right now we enjoy freedom to worship here in America. Let us not take it for granted. Let us fill up continually on the Word of God and spend time in His presence in order that we may share His love and the Hope of the Gospel with all we encounter. I pray that it may be so for me.