Running long distances requires endurance. There is absolutely no way around it. You get tired. You get hungry. You get thirsty. You get dirty. You get sweaty. You hurt. It rains. It snows. It is windy. The miles are long. The only way to push through those challenges is endurance.
Endurance is defined as the fact or power to withstand an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way or giving in.
The key to endurance is training. You don’t start with a high threshold of endurance. You work up to it. You train. You run. You experience hard times but in short distances or times. You build up your stamina. You increase your mileage. With each new distance and with each new challenge, you develop and strengthen your endurance. It is the only way. You can’t go from 0 to a marathon or from 0 to an ultra. You have to build. You have to experience. You have to face challenges. You have to return to the starting line each time.
The Hebrew writer proclaims we need endurance in our spiritual race. Life is hard. You get tired. You get worn out. Some days it rains and some days it pours. But each day provides us with a new starting line. A new opportunity to work on our endurance – to develop and strengthen it. Some days won’t go well for us. We’ll struggle. We’ll fail. But struggling isn’t failing. We only fail when we quit. When we stop showing up to the next starting line.
Our endurance only grows if we embrace the struggles and challenges. If we find a way to learn from them to make us stronger and better. Our struggles, trials, and challenges are meant by the Devil to convince us to quit but God wants us to
use them to make us stronger – to build our endurance.
The road is long and the race is hard but those who return to each day’s starting line and endure to the end will be rewarded.
Each day is a new starting line. You can do it! Endure to the next day and to the next. Stack up your wins. Build your endurance. Run the race the way God intended you to – with endurance. The Lord will reward you at the finish line. He is waiting for you there. #runningtherace
Adonai's Appeal 