PRESSING TOWARD THE MARK

Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain,

And overran Cushi.(2SM 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.

Fay Chiwesha