James 1:12 ESV
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for
when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has
promised to those who love him.
It occurred to me this morning while running on the
treadmill that hitting the physical wall in training can be compared to hitting
the spiritual wall in following Jesus.
The natural reflects the supernatural.
While my heart rate was rising and the sweat was pouring
down my face, my legs started to scream, “Slow down!” I was coming to the wall
of my endurance and the temptation of slowing down my run won.
Yesterday I failed.
Once more Father led me into temptation and instead of
obeying Him I slipped into my fleshy way and failed the test. Guilt overpowered
me and oppression set in. I hit the spiritual wall of endurance. I didn’t
realize that yesterday but today, while running, I saw and understood.
As we physically train our bodies for endurance we do so
slowly and steadily increase our distance and speed, in the case of running,
biking or walking, or weights and repetition, in the case of weight lifting. Sooner
or later we will hit the wall, where we cannot go past it. No matter how hard
we try it seems we cannot go any faster, longer or lift anymore.
What Father showed me was this spiritual walk of ours is
like endurance training and sooner or later we will hit the spiritual wall. In
my case it was obedience. I learned the more I obey Him the better I will be at
it and when the testing comes I will pass.
When training to increase say speed, you do it slowly adding
in speed drills to increase endurance. As you continue to train eventually your
body and mind become conditioned and soon that wall you were hitting before
comes crashing down and you find you are steadily increasing in speed and
endurance until you hit the next wall.
I see that I was wrong in being frustrated with myself for
failing and I now see that these tests are Father increasing my endurance.
Focusing on Scripture, praying and obeying Him are the training tools I need to
run past the wall in my spiritual walk.
As I was running and coming up to my physical wall it all
came together and I saw the training process.
Romans 5:3-4 ESV
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character
produces hope.
Yesterday’s trial was very painful and I hit the wall and
couldn’t do it anymore, yet I picked myself up, repented of my sin and continue
to obey Father knowing that the more I practice this obedience the sooner this
wall will come down and I will move ahead full tilt until I hit the next
spiritual wall.
Blessings,
