Submitting to Change

The St. Jude Rock ‘n’ Roll Nashville Marathon & 1/2 Marathon is April 30th. I am currently training for the half marathon of this series. I started training after a friend of mine encouraged me to run it with her and her friend.

The only problem: they live in Middle Tennessee and I am in West Tennessee.

I have been training for about 7 weeks now and needless to say it’s tough going at it alone. For the most part of my training I have been running at the track around baseball fields in town. One lap equals half a mile. But now I am in the higher numbers and running in a circle for 16 laps is not appealing.

Then I was told about the Navy base track. 4 miles from the gym, around the perimeter, past the commissary and the fire station and back to the gym has always-changing scenery.

I love it!

Not having to see the same scenery every half mile, I don’t get bored and can focus on keeping my feet moving and not on how bored I am. One of my motivational Bible verses, one that I need to have written on the track so I see it often, is 1 Corinthians 9:24.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”

My goal for this half marathon is to simply finish it. I don’t care if I have to crawl across the finish line, I just want to cross it. In order for me to do this I have to train hard, stay focused and not have that second cookie after lunch.

This is similar to running that race marked out for us. You know, that race that is mentioned in Hebrews 12:1-2:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…”

Get rid of the distractions, run a good race. Sounds simple, right?

Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus is hard when there are so many distractions and temptations. It’s not as easy as changing a running location. James 4:7 tells us to

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

We have a choice: not sin and follow God or sin and allow Satan into our lives. Making the right choice takes submission to God. Submitting to God takes trusting in Him with our lives. Trusting Him may require a life change. Are you ready to make that change?