I recently took a fitness class and the warm-up was a lap around the parking lot. Once the majority finished the lap, the instructor would begin the first exercise. You probably already know what I’m about to tell you, lol, I was as slow as a snail running my lap. This resulted in me playing catch-up for the first portion of the class. I had every excuse in my head, “they are younger, they are smaller, they know the routine...” All those things may be factual, but the truth is I had not conditioned myself to keep up the pace. I began to evaluate not only my physical condition but my spiritual condition. Was I moving like a snail when God wanted me to run like a gazelle? Is God moving? Is He urging us to run along, take a leap of faith, trust Him for greater, and we are just “slow-poking” (country word) around waiting for some divine sign when He has already given us the green light?
Words of wisdom to consider:
1. Keep up with the pace of God, don’t resist the shift.
Just like the gazelle we need to be super sensitive to discern the move of God. We don’t want to resist an unconventional move. Prayer is key to discernment.
2. God is unchanging in character not in method.
God is always holy, just, and faithful among every other good thing. Yet His methods in demonstrating who He is may be uncommon to us at the time. We can ill afford to be stuck because He didn’t speak the way He did the last time. Refuse to limit your faith in God’s unlimited power.
3. Condition yourself to move when God says move.
Begin by obeying in the small things, the quiet whispers of God. Obedience is the response we give to trust. When we obey in the smallest ways, we become agile in the moves that require greater faith.
The snail protects himself by staying in one place and hiding under a shell but still risks the chance of being flipped over and devoured, the gazelle protects himself by running faster than his prey and moving to a new territory.
You were made to run! Condition yourself.
:24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may [i]obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize [j]is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus, I fight not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” 1 Cor. 9:24-27
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