And to Your Faith - Add...

And to your faith – add…

 There are lots of training plans you can follow if you wish to run a marathon.  Most of them take between 16 and 20 weeks and will include a combination of easy runs, speed workouts, and long runs.  The differences in plans are based on you starting shape and you finish goal.  But all of them start with one big assumption – that you have already been running.  The plan I’ve used most often assumes that you have already been running 25 miles a week and can run a long run of at least 8 miles.  Only at that point should you start to train to go 26.2 miles. 

Like running, I try to look for training plans that will prepare me to run the “Christian” race.  One thing I’ve noticed is that God, when He does a great work, does not typically follow a pattern.  That Jericho thing, when the army marched around the city and blew trumpets, was a one-time deal.   So was the burning bush and the talking donkey.  God doesn’t want us to rely on special phenomenon, but on Him.  But when I see a formula on how to train as a Christian, I want to latch on to it.  One such formula came to mind in 2 Peter 1:

⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Peter talks about qualities we should be developing in order to be effective and fruitful in our Christian lives.  But it, like our 25 mile per week running base, also has an assumption – our faith.  Peter tells us to add or supplement our faith. 

So as we begin to train for the Christian life – our foundation has to be our faith.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

We need to start with a heart given to God through His Son, Jesus Christ.  We need to understand salvation, repentance, and forgiveness through Jesus.  And then we can add to that those qualities that will make us effective.

Over the course of the next several blogs we will look at adding these qualities to our faith – much like a runner in training who is adding to his running base abilities that will help him run faster and farther.  After that we will turn our focus to the race itself as we strive to reach the Finish Line for which God has called us to achieve.

Until then – run on!