Striving for the Prize - Lesson 5 - Destined to Run

Whether you want to be or not you are in a race.
It has already begun and you have not yet completed it,
so that puts you somewhere in the middle.

Are you ready?
Have you prepared?
How is your focus?
How is your endurance?

Are you running from something or
are you running toward something?

Let’s search the scriptures and
Let’s become better prepared for the race we were designed to complete.


Rather than running on our own strength
and rather than running the race we think we need to be in
we need to check our motives
and see if we are running the race He has set before us.

We need to run via the Commandments
We need to run our motives through His filter.
Have we submitted ourselves to Him and done what He asked
Or have we done what we wanted and said,
‘There Lord, I did that for you.’

Psalm 119:25, ‘My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.’

Quicken, we have spoken about this previously,
A couple weeks ago I challenged us to go to Him sooner.
Here is a prayer asking to be quickened.

Have you ever prayed that?

Or can you give testimony of going to the Lord in prayer
sooner than after we have tried everything else?





Psalm 119:26, ‘I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.’

Can you give us some advice so we can also pray this boldly?





Psalm 119:27, ‘Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.’

I believe we pray for the Lord to help us understand
His Word and what He is trying to teach us.
Do we pray as often for Him to help us talk of His wondrous works?





Psalm 119:28, ‘My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.’

We pray for strength,
Do we also pray for Him to reveal why our souls are so heavy?
Or are we afraid of what He may reveal.





Psalm 119:29 ‘Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.’

Maybe we wouldn’t classify ourselves as liars,
Do we exaggerate some portions of the truth?
Do we withhold other portions of the truth?

Your thoughts…





Psalm 119:30, ‘I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid [before me].’

I want us all to be able to pray this boldly,
Can you give us some advice here?





Psalm 119:31, ‘I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame.’

It takes a lifetime to build a reputation,
And only a moment to tarnish one.

What advice can you give us here?





Psalm 119:32 ‘I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.’

There is that filter I spoke of earlier,
I believe we need to run out thoughts through this filter.
Our words should be filtered.
Our actions should be filtered.

If we don’t ‘run the way of thy commandments,’
If we don’t filter our lives through the commandments,
And we are truly saved, He will.
It will be a lot less embarrassing and a lot less shameful if we do it.

What can you share with us here?





We are Destined to Run

Story of Joshua 4,
We need a memorial before us.

Habakkuk 2:1-2, ‘I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.’

I believe we loose site of why we are running.
How do you suggest we keep our why in front of us?





Habakkuk 2:3-4, ‘For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul [which] is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.’

Who’s faith are we living by?





Psalm 147:15, ‘He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.’

Your thoughts…





Conclusion

How truly swift is our race?
Are we full of excuses when we trip?
Do we volunteer excuses as to why we have not started?

Do we occupy ourselves with nonsense, time-consuming tasks
to justifying us not doing all that we are supposed to be doing?

We are destined to run.
If we are not doing what the Lord has laid before us we will be miserable.
When we are doing what He asks,
Or what He has told us to do,
We are at peace with those around us.

If we are serving in VBS because the Lord asked us to
the nonsense around us shouldn’t matter.
We are not to be in it for a reward or a compliment.

If we are serving our spouse as the Lord tells us to
their behaviors should not matter.
We are not to serve them to get something in return.

Let’s use these verses as model prayers for our lives,
Rather than the wimpy, wishy-washy prayers we may have been delivering.
Let’s live better today than yesterday and in turn
Pray bolder tonight than we did last night.

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