I found my boots !!!

I am an early bird; I am normally out of bed before sunrise. To me this is the best time of the day. It is a time that I can spend in solitude, pray, read my bible and give thanks to my glorious maker, Jesus. I quite often feel like I have had a head start before others. Where as some people love a sleep in when they can steal it, nothing better than staying under the sheets and taking in a few minutes longer.

When I leave my house in the morning it is very dark, sometimes I can see in front of me, others I cannot. When it is dark and I cannot see, I am programmed so to speak in knowing where every step in the house is. Where my boots are just outside the door. Instinctively I just know where everything is as I trundle outside to my car, longing for that first cup of coffee in the morning on my way to work.

How do we do this, how do we know where everything is when we cannot see 2 feet in front of us?

What would you say if I said-
Faith, love & trust

In these times we live in with so much that is happening around us, we can often feel like we are walking in the dark with only a very small glimmer of light in front of us. Some times we can feel alone, almost like we have been let down.

Living in the love of God, believing in his promises, and accepting this within our hearts is similar to been an athlete.

An athlete that is a runner for instance knows that he is a runner, sounds silly doesn’t. He does not wake up one morning and all of a sudden thinks that he is a swimmer. The first step in my Christian walk everyday is knowing one important little thing, and that is I am a child of God.

That Jesus loves me and that I am saved only by his goodness and grace shone unto me. I know I am a runner for he has told me, he does not love me any less if I run slowly or fast. And if I trip and fall along the way, he still loves me and believes in me as I lay on the ground. I am a runner so I get back up instead of trying to swim. I believe in what he has called me to be and hobble onwards towards my goal.

The reading of his word and of his promises gives me the hope, the endurance to run the extra miles. For within his living word lies a love story, a story written for me by him. The days when my legs start to ache and the cramps take its toll, his words bring me hope.

The word also tells me where each and every little step is, where my boots are, I start to get a picture within my mind where I am and where everything else is in the big picture of life. The pattern of my environment and its surroundings get etched into my mind the more I read and the more I start to understand. This is what I draw upon when the lights start to go dim.

His love is like no other, it slays beyond measure. I run the race because I love him, I run the race because he first loved me, I run the race because he has given me his promises and love in his word, I run the race because he told me he loves me and will never forsake me, I run the race because I know I am loved and that nothing can ever separate me from his love.

I run the race, the fall, I limp, I stagger and I stop in pain. But he loves me regardless and knows that I will be a winner for he already has given me the prize. This knowledge compels me to still compete in the race, for no other reason than to please him in loving obedience. I can not finish the race by my own steam; he carries me through the hardest sections.

So when I woke up this morning the 24th of May the day after Pentecost, my surroundings felt very dark indeed. I did not want to get up and walk into the darkness again.

But I remembered his word

I remembered all the promises he has given unto me

I remembered his love

I remembered his grace

And I remembered that I was a runner

And in the darkness I held onto everything that he has told me. He wanted me to get out of my bed and step in faith towards the door. He carried me over the steps, he found me my boots and he sent me out into this beautiful day with a kiss and called me his son.

I didn’t find my way, he did. I just trusted in what he has taught to my heart, through his word, through his love and through holding onto my faith that he will come for me, that he will carry me to the finish line. I was not walking in the darkness, but running in his light.

Praise him for he is worthy

Love ybiC / Paul

From RITA