Run The Race

Well, I see that we have bridged the gap between the holy days of Advent to the season of Lent! Sorry for anyone who has been disappointed at no new update (you know who you are!!).
Anyway, the journey I have been on since the last posting has been tremendous. I have moved and I have lost approximately ten pounds. Yeah! The move was totally stressing me out, and I think I was eating all of my feelings. I had a lot of feelings. Then I was not only stressed out, I was not fitting in my clothes, which led me to despair. Therefore, I prayed. God, in His great kindness, allowed me to hear Lysa Terkheurst on the radio (leader of Proverbs 31 Ministries). She had out a new study called, "Made to Crave" which teaches on the fact that I was created for God, not food. Imagine. I bought the whole thing, the DVDs, book and participant's guide. (I will be addressing my shopaholic idol next Lenten season.) What a huge blessing! Lysa is so winsome and sympathizes with the whole weight, food, self-image thing because her own journey led her to write this series! I HIGHLY encourage any women to grab ahold of this study! So good!
Through the study, I was sorely convicted that I needed to exercise. Now, I am an indoors girl. I do NOT like heat, cold, bugs, wind, rain, sunshine that is too bright, sweat, you get the picture. The Holy Spirit just began pressing on me so much that I eventually put on my cute pink cross-trainers and headed out for a brisk walk around the neighborhood.
Whew! Mission accomplished, right? Wrong. God then shared with me that He wanted me to do some exercise that would make me dependent on Him, beyond my own strength. Not walking. Jogging. I had jokingly said to someone not two weeks before this that I would only run if someone was chasing me! Guess what! God was chasing me!!
With great trepidation, I began. It was hard. It hurt. It made me breathe funny, and not in a "haha" way. My side hurt. Then my other side hurt. I kind of loped the neighborhood hoping the Lord would take pity on me and never make me do that again. Then a funny thing happened. I realized that I had survived! Two miles! Hey, I could do that again! I felt led to jog(gish) three times per week, listen to praise and worship music and pray, pray, pray. I have been amazed at how close to God I feel in those early morning sessions. I guess it's because I have recognized yet another area that I am completely dependent on Him, yet it is my responsibility to press into His reality.
Okay, that brings us to this morning.
Today is Ash Wednesday. This is a solemn, holy day celebrated by Christians worldwide to examine ourselves for sin and idols, and confess these to God; cultivate a plan to lay aside our sin and take up an act of service to God. As I read the lectionary passages (from the Book of Common Prayer), I was struck by the Hebrews passage. Check it out:

. . . 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 . . . Hebrews 12:1 ESV


The Word of God is living!! I was amazed at how God spoke right to my heart to encourage me that He wants me to run, literally run, to show me the heavenly reality of my faith being a marathon, pressing on, enduring what He has for me. There is stuff that cannot come with me, it's holding me back. I need to let it go and RUN!
Yet one more confirmation has been a song that I heard on Sunday, just resonating in my spirit, from Hillsong's "A Beautiful Exchange," called "Forever Reign." The chorus goes like this:

And oh, I'm running to Your arms, I'm running to Your arms
The riches of Your Love will always be enough
Nothing compares to Your embrace
Light of the World, forever reign!


I encourage you: be still. God is speaking. So many times I ignore small impulses and dismiss them because I'm too busy, too caught up in myself to notice. God is speaking in that still, small voice. Don't miss out on the blessing of obedience, even when it costs you something.
You just might find yourself running to His arms.