Pressing Pays Off!!

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14 KJV)

In March of this year, I decided to take up running. I know thats not something people usually "take up" but because, I wanted to be healthy and active, I decided to go with running/walking, something that i can do that doesnt require a lot of equipment, and can be done anytime. I started using a website called Dailymile.com to log my miles and to get motivation from others. I also have it set to post my miles on my facebook page so all my friends and family can see it as well. It helps me stay accountable too. A few friends of mine have joined to and it has been fun to keep eachother motivated to keep moving.

Over these few months I have noticed how "pressing" pays off!! I went back and looked over my logs that I posted back in March until now and WOW , my times and my attitude have definetly changed. I started off, logging my runs and posting negative and whiney comments about how the run went. I complained about everything from the weather, to my legs hurting etc. My times were SLOW as well, I noticed that in the beginning it took me about 11-12 minutes to run a mile, whereas now I can run a mile in 9min 20 seconds on average. It may not look like much but it a HUGE improvement and it took about 5 months for me get here. I am now up too running about 10-15 miles per week and now have the confidence to run a 5k coming up in August!! Im so exicited.

While sitting back and reflecting on this journey 1 Corinthians 9 :24 comes to mind that says, " Dont you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!" This verse and the scriptures that follow it talk about the attitude of an actual runner and the discipline it takes to train to be able to actually FINISH a race, but the example is given to help us as Christians better understand what it takes to Live for Christ so that we can Live Again. In my journey to be able to run a 5k race, it took discipline in a lot of areas. I had to push past pain and push past the thoughts of giving up, almost on a daily basis just to get to this point. I had to have the proper training gear ie shoes, watch, clothing etc. in order to be able to train properly. I even had to go online and do a little research on a few things to learn more about running and how to train and prevent injuries. I even asked friend who were runners questions too, to kind of get some first hand information. I realize that the same thing applies to my spiritual life. The same determination I had for running, can be applied to my walk with Chirst.

There are things that I must do build my spiritual endurance. Praying , studying , fellowshipping with the people of God, ministering, and evangelizing are "exercising or training" for the Christian. Yes there are days when I dont feel like reading or studying or even praying but I MUST!! If I dont , just like in running, then I wont be ready to run the race. I need to train properly for when the time comes for me to be able to pray or minister to others I will be Ready!!

I just want to encourage you all to continue to press, I know that at times it may get hard and may feel like you want to give up or its just too hard but DONT....I dare to you to keep PRESSING IN and to remember that WE run to get an ETERNAL PRIZE, So run with purpose in every step... God Bless...