Daily Devotion brought to you by Shelley Brandon, Grief and Encouragement Coach
Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”
We live in a race. Some call it a rat race, some call it a maze. Either way it’s a lot of energy expended on doing things that don’t need to be done. Don’t sweat the small stuff, right?
I don’t know about you, but I can get so caught up in the small stuff that I lose sight of my destination, my goals. This happens in my day to day activities as well as long range objectives. I can get on the computer to send encouragement to a friend and get so caught up in everyone’s Facebook status updates that I completely forget what it was that I started out doing in the first place. For me cleaning house should be a marathon event. I spend so much time walking back and forth after the supplies that I thought I already had with me that I’m exhausted before even one room is done.
Getting caught up in day to day activities prevents me from keeping my focus on what I’m supposed to be doing for Christ. I allow the busyness of life to weigh me down and drag me under to the point where I’m completely useless as His ambassador. We’re talking lead blankets on all my limbs type of weighted down. Dragging the lead blankets against the current of a mighty river weighted down.
That is not what Jesus wants us to do. Paul tells us that we are to strip down and start running. Pretty sure he didn’t mean our clothes here, but rather all of the stuff of living that just doesn’t matter. I love the Message version of scripture. No spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Your sins have been forgiven, leave them behind you and keep running. Don’t get so caught up in religion that you lose sight of the Savior.
Read the Gospels and get back to the important tracks of the race. Embrace Easter and live!
No comments:
Post a Comment