The Marathon

I am sitting here having just finished a much needed time of prayer..and it hit me...as much as I know that I need to run to Jesus when things get bad, and when I'm all out of strength, I forget to. Or I choose not to, either way, I first try relying upon myself for strength before I remember, Oh yes, I have the Holy Spirit to call upon. I feel as though I have been running a marathon, and contrary to how running a marathon in real life asks you to rely on your own physical strength, emotional marathons are more successfully run, when we rely upon Christ. True that it may be our legs that our moving, but it's His strength that propels us, or this is how it should be if things are to work as they should. I find myself constantly so discouraged because "I can't keep my house clean, or my life always seems chaotic..." So today, I brought those things to the Lord, laid my fears at the foot of the cross and asked for help, really I asked for my savior to save me.

Those things might not be what stress you out and cause you to stumble at mile 10, but whatever the stumbling block may be, Jesus is the answer. Perhaps you think, "How silly to pray about house work..." but in my situation, my state of health has cause the slightest of jobs to feel like a mountain. And I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

There is nothing to small to bring to the foot of the cross...and Jesus will never scoff at your request when you come to Him broken and begging for a savior.

But I had the thought, why do I only go when I'm so worn out I can't hardly make it? Why don't I ask the at the very first sign of fatigue? Because somewhere in me lies the desire to do it myself and to conquer on my own. But friends, I'm here to tell you, when we try to do things this way, and conquer our battles (however big or small) on our own, we will fail. Look at any Psalm passage and surly you will find the writer crying out to God for help, and for saving. Why? Because David knew, that no battle was even worth going into if the Lord was not at his side...and friends, we are no different. Each day is an adventure. Each day is a battle. Each day has much work for us to accomplish for Christ, for our families and for others, and who are we to think that we are even partially equipped to do these things on our own? I used to think I could, but now I'm certain I cannot.

Life may be chaos. That's OK when I know I have Christ to carry me through, to supply me with what I need. We truly can do nothing apart from Christ and it's that complete dependence that makes our relationship with Him work. We cannot harbor within us the thought that we are "fine on our own" (either in action or thought) because that surly will be the day we fall.

I have fallen many many days before I realized just why I was falling down so much! I was walking in my own strength, cleaning in my own strength, parenting in my own strength, being a wife in my own strength, and yes, being sick in my own strength...

As this new understanding settled in my heart today I come to you my friends with sincerity of heart saying this: We need to stop doing things as though we do not need our Savior...it's disrespectful to the Father who made us, but it also makes our lives much less full than they could be if only we admitted our state of need.

Sometimes we do this without even meaning too, and sometimes we are prideful and say we are OK on our own...but regardless of the state of mind, it's that fact that it's happening.

I most certainly speak for myself when I say this, but as always I encourage all of you to learn from my many mistakes...and as your eyes fall upon these words from my heart to yours, may you find yourselves examining your own lives and hearts thoughts towards this subject. He is hope. He is our strength. He is our life. And anything less than life with Christ, is no life at all...and of course, when we ask for this help, this saving, we receive much more energy and strength than we would have ever had on our own. The marathon just got easier because now we have the sustenance we need to finish strong. And perhaps run beyond the 26.2! ( for those of you who don't run, that's the distance of a marathon)

I may be only on mile 15, but I can see ahead, and the next 10 miles seem much less intimidating now that I am running in His strength rather than my own. And I pray you too will see this as I do. God bless your run!!!