Devoted Blog

Wave Conference Devotional – Day 7

July 7, 2019
DAY 7
Devotional by Josh Kicker

I’ve never liked running on a treadmill; well let’s be honest I’ve never liked running distances. Sprints: “No problem”; more than the length of a basketball court: “No thanks.” I don’t know why people enjoy it; I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that “runner’s high”. What’s even worse about running is that there are some people that like to talk to you while they are running beside you…like why? Do you not see me holding my side in pain or gasping for air?

I remember in college when running a few miles for training for a physical fitness test that someone said: “It’s easy, just don’t quit.” If it was only that easy. Look, let’s be honest, quitting seems easier. Quitting is a limit we place on ourselves when we don’t want to fight through the struggle. However, I don’t think we fully experience the limitless nature of God when we choose to quit.

Endurance is crucial in our walk with God. One of my favorite prayers in the New Testament lies in Colossians 1: 9-11 (NIV)

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience…”

The Apostle Paul exhorts us to live a life worthy of God’s calling both in this passage and also his letter to the Ephesians (Eph 4:1) Yet, he knew this walk would be hard at times, which is why he undergirds this prayer with the purpose yielding great endurance in us.

It’s easy to dream about the expansive and infinite nature of God but can be harder to walk it out in a world confined by the finite. The Psalmist speaks of God’s limitless nature while contrasting it with our own understanding in Psalm 47:5 (MSG) “Our Lord is great, with limitless strength; we’ll never comprehend what he knows and does.”

Run your race without limiting yourself to our finite understanding of human nature, but let’s expand to the measure of the fullness of God. Run your race full of love for God and love for people. I love how the Phillips Translation phrases
1 Corinthians 13:7-8 “Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.” It knows no limit to its endurance. When we run with endurance full and the fortitude to keep going, we experience the limitless nature of God’s love. I genuinely believe one of the keys to experiencing the limitless depths of Jesus Christ is simply: “Just don’t quit.”

 

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