When is it to time to stop running and start pursuing?
Stress
Christian Living
Encouragement
0
Hi friends, Amber Ginter here with another daily devotional for you. So today I want to talk about running, and as soon as I say that, I'm sure there's going to be a few of you that are like, Amber, why are we talking about running? This is a faith-based devotional channel, and I don't want to hear about the sport. So regardless of your love-hate relationship with running, I want to give you a unique twist on that topic today. So I've been running since the age of 14, but I want to clarify I've never ran competitively, so though I did run on my own at high school, college, after graduation, I never formally ran with a sports team, for example. The thing about running is that there's kind of two sides to it, that's why I say it's love-hate. So some people, when they start running, they find it really hard to stop. It becomes very addictive, they get like a runner's high. There's the other side of the people that are just like, wow, I do this for one minute and I really don't like it, and it sucks. So I want to stop, and I don't want to do it ever again. I've always been the type of person that once I start running, I enjoy it, and I'll be like, oh, just five more minutes. I can just go five more minutes, maybe just like one more mile, it's going to be fine. My husband is the opposite. What does running have to do with faith? Well, I started thinking about over the last five years, I've really been struggling with a lot of physical and mental health issues, and you'll see that through the books that I write, the blogs and podcasts that I produce, and even these videos. And so one thing that I've realized is I can be really good at just running and running and running and mustering through and thinking that it's my strength and my power to be able to get through endometriosis and IBSC and anxiety and depression and getting married and before that, getting engaged and planning a wedding and teaching and all this stuff can be so overwhelming and overbearing, especially when you're in a place where you have a goal that you want to achieve and you're not quite there yet. You're in a season that is preparing you for that, but you're not to that place yet. And so today's encouragement is that no matter what type of running we're doing, physical or mental, and I more mean this as well as a spiritual realm, that when we are running, friend, I want to encourage you that you run to Jesus. And so for me, I'm still learning this, that when I'm doing all these things and life becomes so overwhelming, sometimes I don't need to run. And I don't mean that in a physical sense, I mean, in a spiritual sense. And so when I'm having struggles and problems, I'm really tempted to just keep going and push and do more and be overproductive and try to solve things because that's the way I've been. That's how I've always been since as a little girl and even facing trauma growing up. It kind of taught me that I needed to fend for myself. I needed to keep running. I need to keep striving and keep pushing. And the wonderful news is that God doesn't ask me to keep running and keep pushing and keep striving. He wants me to run directly to him. And so it doesn't mean that we can't seek other help and resources, things like medication and therapy and going to counseling and, and all of those things are wonderful, but let us not forget the counsel that we have in our father and in the power of running to him. So I want to leave you today with Psalm 71 and it says, I run to you Lord for protection. Don't disappoint me. You do what is right. So come to my rescue. Now this is primarily written from a context of asking God for protection because a lot of the times when David wrote the Psalms, he was, he was having these really scary situations where he needed physical protection, but no matter what you're facing today, if it's physical protection during actual run, or just you mentally are running from all the things that need to be done. And more specifically, you're running from Christ and in those moments, cause you're just so overwhelmed and think that you can handle it by yourself. Just know that I'm right there with you and we need to run straight to Jesus. Just like Jonah deciding to run away from God when he was calling him to something, probably not the best option. I don't really want to end up in a whale. I don't think you do either, but that's what happens when I run and run and run for years and then you suddenly find yourself in this place of confusion and doubt and bitterness and you're just like, what am I doing God? And God just whispers, Hey, like it's okay. Just come run back to me. Just come to him, run to him and be encouraged in that running today. So whether you, whether you are running or you're not, um, I pray that that will encourage you.
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