Spurgeon: January PM
* 01/31/PM
"Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and overran Cushi."
--2 Samuel 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.