Hey Friends! Welcome to Maranatha Blogs. Join me on an amazing adventure through the heart of God for us today. My only goal with each blog is to share my raw experiences with you as a Christian navigating life, as we await the return of Jesus. I share my highs, lows and in-betweens in a way that highlights what God has to say in the very moment both to you and me. If this is your first time hearing about Jesus Christ you are also welcomed here.
The scripture I will focus on today is Hebrews 12:1 ” Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 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,”
Guys, in this time I would like to encourage you to run with endurance. The race that requires endurance may require us to run at different speeds. Sometimes you will really have to slow down, then at other times, life may move a bit faster. The past week for me has been extremely slow! After two years of surviving the pandemic unscathed from Covid-19, I’m now infected with the virus and isolated at home. It all happened so quickly, honestly, one week I was as busy as a butterfly, just girl-bossing through my week until this whole ordeal brought me to an involuntary halt. Now reason with me, this is the worse possible time in the year for me to be slowed down and isolated like this. So on Friday I sat in my bed just praying, going back and forth with God. Kind of asking him why we couldn’t have rescheduled this for June or August when I’d be all strung out and desperate for a break from my girl-boss moves. Why at the start of the year when I just wrote all my goals and the things I was about to crush with my power moves in the upcoming weeks? Then I started to think about all the work that was piling up for me and I got so anxious. Anyway, I brushed my annoyance aside. I prayed, I was thankful to be alive and not have been affected worse than my home had been.
Before falling asleep that day the Lord, so gracefully reminded me not to worry through scriptures. I woke up later that day and I was casually just scrolling through YouTube and I came across this movie named “Remember the Goal.” I did not even recently search movies but here this movie was and I clicked on it out of curiosity. The movie changed my entire experience. It was as though God was speaking to me through it. In a synopsis, this coach went to teach a High School cross country team. It was her first time coaching this particular sport long-distance running. Her tactic was to slow the girls down for each race, but with enough pace to qualify for the final round. She was met with so much scrutiny because the team would lose race after race, but they were still qualifying for the next round. Everyone kept advising her to have them run faster, she was very adamant in say; “No, this is the pace I have set for them.” In the final round she sped up their runs and they moved from behind to the very first place on the board. She explained to them that the whole time she was building their endurance. The starting required them to slow down for a bit, but they eventually built stamina to run the race in the way it was intended. Though they were slow they were reaching the Finish Line with enough time to qualify for a next round. Though all the different rounds appeared as though they were setting up for failure, their coach was actually setting them up for a really big win.
Sometimes we feel like we are in places we should not be. Sometimes we feel like we need to go faster or have a bigger and better plan. God sees us, at times he requires us to have a slower pace or a faster pace. It may appear as though everyone is running ahead and you’re in a losing position stuck in isolation, in my case literally LOL. I could see clearly how God had answered all my questions, venting while praying earlier that day. Sometimes the race of endurance requires us to slow our pace down a bit. Maybe God has brought you to a place where he is intentional about slowing down your pace or where he is intentional about allowing your pace to be slowed down. I’m here to let you know today that if God is intentional about your pace being a bit slower in this moment or season it does not mean you are losing. Run with endurance, keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus. He is more than capable of exceeding your expectations. Run with endurance.
God is setting your pace specific to who you are and where you are with your life. Focus on the goal set before you. Reaching the goal does not always require a sprint, speed and fastnesses. Reaching the goal sometimes require a slow, consistent steadiness. Whether you’re running or walking this journey called life in this very moment, God is capable of getting you where you need to be. The part that stands out to me about all of this is his ability to get us where he needs us right on time, with a slow pace. So I’ll leave you with this today. I reiterate, run the race of life with endurance. Run the race set before you, focus on your course. Regardless of who’s running speed or who’s going slow around you. God knows exactly what he’s doing and he has brought you here for such a time as this.
Maranatha 