The Gray Pansy or Grey Pansy (Junonia atlites) is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in South Asia. Taken at Kadavoor, Kerala, India. by Jkadavoor
Good day to you!
My dad ran a half marathon on Sunday. A proud moment for our family, I will tell you. I wanted to cheer, I wanted to jump up and down, but all I could do was watch and clap. My jaw has gotten to the point now where speaking hurts. No chewing. I will tell you this, God is teaching me in new and wondrous ways.
That’ s putting a positive spin on it all. 😉 I’ve been learning a new normal and have been fighting it. Then I began to watch the runners, and I shut up and the Lord began to teach me.
Do you see the strong runner? Those streaming ahead? Do you think they are there because they sat up one morning and said I’m going to run a marathon? Nope. They train. they…well, I’m going to have Paul tell you: 1 Corinthians 9:
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but [only] one receives the prize? So run [your race] that you may lay hold [of the prize] and make it yours.
25 Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things. They do it to win a wreath that will soon wither, but we [do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness] that cannot wither.
Do you see the runner who is blind? Did his disability stop him from being able to run the race? Watch him finish and finish well. You have a point of suffering. Will it stop you from running the race I have set before you?
Hard questions, yet what caught my eye was the woman running alongside of the blind man. She was helping to steer him, guide him..not dragging him or pushing him in a wheelchair but guiding. Ahhh, yes, that is what I need to do here. I need to rest on the Almighty’s right arm and let Him lead. I cannot run alone this race called life. I cannot stride on ahead for it would be as if I were the blind man and took off on my own. Foolish. Yet how often do I fight Him? No, I’m good. And all the while, He is saying you are lost without ME.
Hebrews 12:
Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,
2 Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.(A)
Friends, sin will say to us, God did this. You cannot trust God. You cannot put your hope in what you cannot see. I say to you tonight…sin is very clever. It entangles us. No, shed it! Throw aside every encumbrance, strip it off and be actively persistent. Love that. If there is something distracting you from looking straight at Jesus, look away.
Our Leader and Source is right here. Waiting for you, will you come? Will you hold His hand?
Pray on, beloved. Pray on.
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