Maybe I’m like…
… a 3-year-old filly approaching Churchill’s starting gate, thrilled to put all that training to work in a race that will be over in minutes.
… a NASCAR driver in the pole position in the Daytona 500, revving my engines and awaiting the green flag in a race that will last only hours.
… a long-distance runner determined to finish the 3,200-mile Trans America Foot Race from Los Angeles to New York City in 70 days.
Actually, I am NONE of these! 🙂 But the race I am called to run is far more important.
“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25)
The more I run, Lord, the more I see how easy it would be to fall down and never get up again. But for You, Lord.
The One who always whispers, “Don’t give up.” The One always comes to wherever I have fallen… and lifts me up. Who carries me when I have no strength. Just long enough so I can recover… and then do my part once again.
“… let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith… so that [we] will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:1-3)
The more I run, the more I see how important it is to pray without ceasing. To the extent I fall short in that, I fall short period.
Because prayer is what connects me to You, Lord… and unleashes Your Power!
“If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
I read a quote today that revved my engines Big Time!
“Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is in the way of what God has promised. Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently fated by the momentum of current forces. Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present.” (The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium, Walter Wink; New York: Doubleday, 1999, p. 185)
So often in my life, Lord, You took the “momentum of current forces” and completely reversed their flow! Now, You are calling me to look — and pray — forward… with the certainty that embodies real Faith.
Faith that trusts You completely. Faith that puts a smile in Your heart that we will one day see on Your face.
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
Hopefully earnest…
Earnestly hopeful… 🙂
Abba’s Girl