The Race Set Before Us: A Devotional Guide For Runners
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About this ebook
Running is great exercise, but it can be so much more. It offers a chance to clear your mind, relieve stress and even strengthen your relationship with God.
This collection of devotions touches on every aspect of running from training and races to recovery and rest and connects them to the living the Christian life.
Written in a friendly conversational style, each entry features a key verse, a candid running anecdote, a spiritual application and questions for reflection all designed to help you take your running—and your walk with Christ—to a deeper level.
Paula Wiseman
Author, blogger, and speaker Paula Wiseman is a left-handed Southerner transplanted to Illinois. When not grading homeschool assignments or checking up on college life, she is proofreading her husband’s seminary papers. Keeping a bowl of M&Ms or Rolos close by helps her write award-winning Christian fiction bestsellers, like the Covenant of Trust, Foundations, and Encounters series as well as several devotional books. Find out more at www.paulawiseman.com.
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The Race Set Before Us - Paula Wiseman
THE RACE SET BEFORE US
A Devotional Guide for Runners
Also by Paula Wiseman
Fiction
The Covenant of Trust Series
Contingency
Indemnity
Precedent
Sanction
The Foundations Series
Razed
Refined
Resolute
The Encounters Series
Touched
Embraced
Devotional
56 Tips to Help You Get the Most Out of Every Book in the Bible
THE RACE SET BEFORE US
A Devotional Guide for Runners
PAULA WISEMAN
ROBINSON, ILLINOIS
Copyright © 2017 by Paula Wiseman
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.
Paula Wiseman
Sage Words
606 N. Cross Street
Robinson, IL 62454
www.paulawiseman.com
Unless otherwise noted Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NAS are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1994 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Other Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE, Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Cover photo from Fotolia.com.
For more information, visit paulawiseman.com or email paula@paulawiseman
Book Layout © 2014 BookDesignTemplates.com
The Race Set Before Us/Paula Wiseman.—1st ed.
ISBN 978-0-9986505-0-0
For Jon
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
―1 Corinthians 9:24
CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction
Throw Out Your Expectations
Gotta Be the Shoes
Running with a Plan
Breathing
Results Vary
Stay in the Light
Taking Breaks
Surprising Results
No Winter Break
False Standards
Preventing Chafing
Sidelined
Discipling
Attacked While Running
To the Fullest
Running with a Beginner
Better Than Expected
Marathon Training
Running with Endurance
Trainer or Racer?
After an Injury
Mentoring While We Run
Reflecting
Run, Don’t Perform
A Kids’ Race
Imitating Runners
Eyes on the Prize
Running and Following For Real
Running on the Beach
Overtaken
Trust the Training
Six Lessons from the River Run
Faith Not Comfort
Quiet Miles
Community
Simple Pleasures
Abide
Revival
Foreword
One of my running heroes is the Scottish missionary, Eric Liddell. In the 1924 Olympics, he missed his strongest event, the 100-meter, because of his conviction about the holiness of the Sabbath. Immediately before the 400-meter race, he received a note referencing 1 Samuel 2:30 , those who honor me I will honor.
Inspired, Eric won the gold medal and set a new world record posting a personal best by a miraculous two seconds. In the movie Chariots of Fire, he says, I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.
This statement exudes a beautiful authenticity considering that Eric not only missed an Olympic race for his faith but also died as a missionary martyr in a Chinese World War II concentration camp.
Running, like other sports, provides a concentrated life experience. A football game or a marathon can be framed as a distillation of our life story, condensed into a few hours. Races and games reinforce our concepts of insurmountable obstacles, shining moments, and exuberant winners. Coaches and spectators recall the good, bad, and ugly in expanded detail. The runner evaluates his training, effort, and fortune in the context of a race. Similarly, Christian growth has outward indications of progress, but the more poignant modifications are known only to the individual Christian.
Our Heavenly Father employs our human efforts in virtually all His plans. To become a more effective instrument of God, we must confront our sluggish nature, so we can unleash the dynamo wonderfully installed by our Creator. Running is the simplest, most fundamental expression of human physical effort. And while I don’t think that God favors runners, I do think that God rewards the human ideal of maximum effort when it is tempered with God’s ideal of altruism.
About a year before I was encouraged to start running by a coworker, I watched my uncle die of pancreatic cancer. His prayer two days prior to his heavenly departure affirmed his lifelong faith that "all things work together for good for those that love God." Seeing his bold faith gave me reason to question my reliance on God. Could I see the goodness if I was certain the end of my life was near? The realization that life gets harder and not easier as we progress through life provided a seed in my psyche that allowed me to say yes to the running invitation.
In running, I have found a pastime. So, when I found out that Paula was writing a new book intertwining running and Biblical truths in an ADD-friendly, short-chapter format, I was beyond excited. She