My marathon training has officially started once again. Though I have not stopped running since my last marathon earlier this year, it is now time to bring some much need focused attention to my running. I took up running solely for the purpose of meditation and worship. It has become a very therapeutic(I hate that word because it sounds so humanistic, but bare with me)time for me. I have found that my time while running is a good opportunity to pray, clear my mind, meditate on God's Word, think through some of the things I am facing, things facing my family, places I believe God is at work and places I believe He is leading us to.
While I was running this morning I began to thank God for showing me, how in everything and in all things we could worship Him and connect with Him. God has designed us to live in relationship with Him, but unfortunately even as Christians we have designated that to be a weekend church experience, or midweek Bible Study, or private devotion, yet God desires that we strive to live in communion with him. The Apostle Paul stated in 1 Thessalonians that we "are to pray without ceasing." The idea there is to strive to live in communication with God. We are not to compartmentalize our faith in such a way that we only connect with God through our different forms of religious expressions. But, that we are constantly desiring to seek God and connect with Him in all things and in all parts of our normal walking around life.
What does that mean? Well, you like to work out, use that time to pray, to meditate. Are you blessed with a friendship, relationship, spouse? Figure out how that or those relationships cause you and others to get deeper connected to Christ. Do you have a job? Remember that the actual job is secondary, to why God has you there. The primary reason you are at the place of work is not to get a check although that is important; the primary reason you are there is to be a conduit and catalyst for God's redemptive mission. You see if we desired and if we took the time to recognize, there are so many outlets provided for us to live in authentic community with God.
I love our worship services, but I certainly don't want that 1 hour to be my full of God or my commune with Him. I want connecting with the Creator, who has made it possible for me to connect with Him through Christ, a high priority and focus of my daily life. I am sure you want the same. So before you take your next run, your next drive, have your next conversation, punch in for your next shift, ask yourself, how can I maximize this time for Christ and deepen my walk with Him. I know that's a whole of rambling, but I am praying to that end. God Bless!
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (Romans 12:1-2 The Message)
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