Evening
Time: 7:29 PM PST
"Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and overran Cushi." --2 Samuel
18:23
Running is not everything, there is much in the way which we select: a swift
foot over hill and down dale will not keep pace with a slower traveller upon
level ground. How is it with my spiritual journey, am I labouring up the hill of
my own works and down into the ravines of my own humiliations and resolutions,
or do I run by the plain way of "Believe and live"? How blessed is it to wait
upon the Lord by faith! The soul runs without weariness, and walks without
fainting, in the way of believing. Christ Jesus is the way of life, and He is a
plain way, a pleasant way, a way suitable for the tottering feet and feeble
knees of trembling sinners: am I found in this way, or am I hunting after
another track such as priestcraft or metaphysics may promise me? I read of the
way of holiness, that the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein:
have I been delivered from proud reason and been brought as a little child to
rest in Jesus' love and blood? If so, by God's grace I shall outrun the
strongest runner who chooses any other path. This truth I may remember to my
profit in my daily cares and needs. It will be my wisest course to go at once to
my God, and not to wander in a roundabout manner to this friend and that. He
knows my wants and can relieve them, to whom should I repair but to Himself by
the direct appeal of prayer, and the plain argument of the promise.
"Straightforward makes the best runner." I will not parlay with the servants,
but hasten to their master.
In reading this passage, it strikes me that if men vie with each other in
common matters, and one outruns the other, I ought to be in solemn earnestness
so to run that I may obtain. Lord, help me to gird up the loins of my mind, and
may I press forward towards the mark for the prize of my high calling of God in
Christ Jesus.