What Are You Running From
Today people are running here and there. It seems like time is also running, running away with our lives. We live in an instant world, click this and you are there. Knowledge is at our fingertips. We do not even need to leave our couch, and we can do almost anything. Pick up the phone and it will be delivered to you.
No one slows down to stop and smell the roses, or even to take the time to consider all the blessings that God has blessed us with. But I ask, “What are we running from?” Every generation has lived life, and every generation has had the time to live that life, but today it seems that no sooner do we wake up, we are going back to sleep. We still have the same twenty-four hours in a day, but you hear people everywhere say, where did this day go? Or where did this month go? (Young and old alike.) So I ask again, “What are we running from?” You may say, I am not running from anything. But, yes, you are, you are running from God. The more we occupy our lives with ourselves, and the world, we are not occupying it with God, our Creator, our Father, the Lover of our souls. God created us to spend time with Him. He so loves us. He is a lover who pursues the one He loves. He does what He has to do to get our attention, our affection. We hear so often, why does God allow such things? He allows it because He has to get our attention, simply because He loves us so much. To some people that may seem just the opposite, they think that God is cruel. No! God is not cruel but God is a holy God and He is a jealous God, No, not jealous like us who are in the flesh, but His holiness requires holiness. God is set-apart from sin, and sin separates us from God. God created us not so He would be separated from us, but just the opposite, to fellowship with us and one day to live with us. This was the idea behind the Mishakan, (Tabernacle) in the wilderness God so wanted to be with His people and He still does.
Revelation 21:3 says, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.”
2 Corinthians 6:16 tells us that we now are the temple and God lives inside us,
“Or what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,“I will dwell among them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
It’s time to stop running, but when you do, don’t be surprised at this, for
1 Peter 4:3-5 says, “For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the pagans, having pursued a course of indecent behavior, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and wanton idolatries. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excesses of debauchery, and they slander you; but they will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”
Many believers think that they can live like the world and still be in God’s good graces. The only running God wants us to do is told to us in Hebrew 12:1-3, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Yeshua, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
If we find that we do not have time to pray or read our Bibles, and that our whole life is centered around ourselves, then we are in jeopardy of separating from God and maybe it already has happened.
1 Peter 1:3-11 gives us good advice if we find that we are running in the wrong direction.
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Messiah Yeshua. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and SaviorMessiah Yeshua.
Today, take a moment and consider the question, “What are you running from?” And let God help you to slow down, and turn around, and even repent if you must, then run into His arms, and let Him heal you, and forgive you, and bring you back to where you belong.
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