“To run well and finish strong, you must first take an honest assessment of where you are in your connection to God and how you got there, and make a commitment that you are going to accept once and for all that God is worthy of your pursuit. We can spend a lifetime finding blame for the reasons we live beneath God’s best, or we can look to Jesus and let God show us where to really begin.”- Heath Adamson
“And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”- Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)
Heath Adamson concludes Chapter 1 of The Sacred Chase as he observes that our busy lives keep us going. Just enough to avoid the stillness we need to hear God’s whisper. In fact, Heath wonders if we might fear what God may show us in the silence. Writing in With Open Hands (1995), Henri Nouwen adopts this viewpoint:
“There was a time when silence was normal and a lot of racket disturbed us. But today noise is the normal fare, and silence has become the real disturbance.”
Furthermore, we often react like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15). We take advantage of God’s goodness. We content ourselves with the Father’s blessings, yet show no desire to spend time with the Father in His house.
Finally, you can put all your heart into running your spiritual race. But if you run in the wrong direction, you still won’t finish. So, the moment arrives when each of us must take what we believe and apply it to our own situation. Heath adds:
“If what we believe is correct but is overshadowed by apathy, our spiritual adversary doesn’t need to speak to us or tempt us anymore. But if we take what we know to be true about God’s goodness and allow our spiritual passion to overtake our other priorities, the words of Job will become ours: ‘I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.’ ” (Job 42:5)
Today’s question: What Bible verses enable you to run well and finish strong? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “One enemy of our sacred chase – proximity”
