Evening, January 31, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Then Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and passed up the Cushite.” — 2 Samuel 18:23

Running is not everything; the route which we select is important.  A swift foot over hill and down dale will not keep pace with a slower traveler upon level ground. So how is it with my spiritual journey?  Am I laboring 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 staggering feet and feeble knees of trembling sinners; am I found in this way, or am I hunting after another track like one that religious manipulation or metaphysics may promise me? I read of the Highway of Holiness. It will be for him who walks that route, and fools will not wander on it; 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 needs and can meet them; to whom should I return but to himself by the direct appeal of prayer, and the plain argument of the promise. “A straight path forward makes the best runner.” I will not make deals with the servants, but hasten to their master.

In reading this passage, it strikes me that if men compete with each other in common matters, and one outruns the other, even more so ought I run in solemn earnestness so that I may win in spiritual matters. Lord, help me to prepare and strengthen my mind, and may I press forward towards the mark for the prize of my high calling of God in Christ Jesus.