Win The Race!

The Race of Faith

12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and [b]finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

This post is not easy to put together but these last three weeks and a bit have been intense in many ways with difficult circumstances that have cropped up with me in my own life whereby I have had to take a step back and evaluate what exactly is going on; having to reflect and to take stock as well as needing to check my heart over some issues that have cropped up of late. This has also been a continuous roller coaster of a ride in some cases of pouring out my heart to Abba Father due to the intensity of situations which have caused a great deal of concern with me. So, where there should have been joy was replaced by uncertainty along with anxiety and wondering if I was the one who was in the wrong and not understanding the concept of “life issues” that had cropped up and would not for whatever reason go away and basically just evaporate!

I don’t deal very well with conflict or discussions which could become heated due to others opinions and this is where I know in my own walk with Jesus that I have to be so very careful with my choice of words – meaning how I react and the tone and the words themselves in how I come across. Sometimes when there is conflict which does happen a lot and is bound to as every single person is unique and created with our personality traits along with being given choices in how we deal with circumstances/situations that do crop up and how we handle differences that do and will come up which is inevitable. Life is full of challenges and on a consistent basis and there is no getting away from this fact!

We are all on our own unique journey in navigating life and every single one of us have our own thought process and our own ideologies in how we want to handle difficulties that crop up but how do we handle difficulties that do crop up? Do we have the type of personality whereby we want to run at the first sign of difficulty or do we keep pressing forward learning how to navigate thereby pressing forward in whatever life throws at us!

At the end of the day, our personal feelings and desires should not come into play but we all have fleshly desires and we have sin in our lives whether we want this or even admit this or not but the fact remains we are all sinners in whatever way. This is the case because this is the nature of man and we all have “self”ish desires and want things to go how we want them to go rather than taking a step back and allowing The Holy Spirit to take the lead – saying this by the way if we have handed our lives over to Jesus in the first instance otherwise it is imposible to live a life pleasing and centered around God Himself.

So, going back to the situations that have been going on with me of late – this is where as I mentioned I have so needed to check my own heart and to literally take stock of what was going on and why and to ask Abba Father to help me to be an overcomer in how to approach difficult topics of conversation that had come up! I am not a person who copes very well with any kind of stress; With situations that stem from childhood whereby I struggle with any kind of heated debates or discussions of any kind and hate literally hate any kind of conflict and yes I do want to run because I also have to say I have not totally figured out how to be an overcomer in certain situations. This is probably due to having ADHD/Autism and I hate labels by the way and labels do not define who we are as Believers in Jesus Christ and do not define how Abba Father sees us but nonetheless, certain life issues I am still learning how to navigate in certain areas of this journey called life!

Areas of conflict I do my best to avoid as when faced with difficult situations – as soon as there is even the slightest hint of conflict, my stomach starts to churn and I start to tense up – not exactly a good start. Those who are reading this who have known me for too many years to count understand the issues I have here. I also struggle in group situations, again this has been ongoing since childhood and alas another area of conflict where I have run so often and to many times to count. I have no idea how to handle being in groups of people especially with those whom I barely know which is where sadly insecurity and at times fear creeps in. Social skills for me is an area where The Holy Spirit is working in my life but even so there is a long ways to go in this area too!

All of us are imperfect as I have stated in a previous blog post. All of us have faults but it is about learning how to be an overcomer as children of the Living God. It is about pushing through the barriers which gives me a picture of when you go out on a walk in a particularly dense wooded area where one would carry a stick which comes in handy to push brambles or those stinging nettles out of harms way – the principle is exactly the same where to continue on in our walk or life you have to persevere through difficulties by pushing through those stinging nettles that come up and when you persevere to the extent where you know you are going to come through on the winning side!

In all things relating to life’s challenges and with our walk with Jesus – to continue on and to remain steadfast, we do have to push through uncomfortable situations even when there is pain involved and there are bound to be barriers but with perseverance comes optimism and confidence – we can know that The Holy Spirit is with us helping us in times of difficulty. So, in other words just as I need to learn to not quit or to back away – this applies for all of us to keep persevering no matter what life throws our way because also how are we going to learn? How are we going to be overcomers in a world so full of intense hate? which is where studying God’s Inherent Word comes into play and why yet again I do keep stressing the need to seriously get to grips with His Word in not just reading but to dig deeper to understand all the amazing goodness Abba Father has for both you and me.

We also need to be doers of His Word and not just hearers – the two go hand in hand without a shadow of a doubt.

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