Running with Endurance

I thought it only fitting to do this weeks meditation on the bible verse that has been written on my foot every time I run. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us." Hebrews 12:1 This verse is a verse that I felt the Lord gave me at the first race I ran back in August. Since then I have written the verse on my foot every time I run as a reminded. Of course I can't read it so well through my shoes but I know it is there so as I run I am able to recite it and remember what I am actually doing. I am running this race of life with God. I must strip off everything that holds me back. So many things in my life get in the way of my relationship with God. Sin kills, we all know this. However each time we are tempted we have a choice to either step into sin or to resist it. We must strip ourselves of that temptation before we commit sin. Something I have learned from running is the fact that you don't actually run until you make a conscience decision to do so. You must put forth the effort to not only move but to actually stride and move quickly. We must run when we are faced with temptation. God has a path marked out for us. To daily walk down the path of righteousness. However we must choose to do that. We must learn to run with endurance and the only way we can get endurance is to build it up. So we must do it over and over and then we will be able to have more and more endurance to run. I can honestly say that for me I could not have ran a marathon without the 16 weeks of training that I had. I had to build up my endurance to run miles at a time. The very first time I started running I ran 2 miles.... VERY SLOW and with a lot of walking in between. I didn't have endurance to run that far nonstop. It is again a conscience act that we must do. Our faith life is exactly like this. We must rely completely upon God and allow Him to lead us. Submitting ourselves to Him and His will and running from temptation and things that hold us back from serving Him.

As always I encourage you this week to look at your life. Where are you hindered by temptation and sin? What would it take to strip those off? Spend time with the Lord and ask Him to reveal those areas and then take the steps you must take to run on the path He has set out before you!