I’ve run for as long as I can remember but at one point I lost my love for running and quit for a short period.  The last few years I picked it back up because I felt the need to lose some weight and a desire to get healthier in my ‘aging’ years!  My running on the road had been drudgery.  I set some goals, which I still have, to help me to be consistent and motivate me to get out the door, but I had lost my love for running.  Thankfully I found it again via trail running, mixed with road running.  All this being said, my goals I have set are good goals but I had to get back to why I run in the first place - because I love it!  I had to get back to enjoying the process and journey, the goals are just ‘icing on the cake!’

There are many spiritual applications to our physical life.  I realized salvation is similar.  We come to Jesus Christ for salvation and hopefully we learn to love Jesus and His word, but through the course of time we can become so goal oriented as a church, as believers that we lose our first love that Jesus warned us about in Revelation chapter two.  Jesus has called us into a relationship with Him!  Yes, He desires us to keep heaven in front of us but He intends for us to enjoy the journey - to not lose the joy of our salvation - to not lose our love for Him, His word and His church!

We serve Him in our little sphere of influence because we love Him!

And it is only as we love Him that we can truly be His “ambassadors” that His word declares us to be (ref. 2 Cor.5: 20).  Jesus desires us to love what we are doing, in life and ministry, they coexist!  He desires us to love Him and others.  Mankind’s greatest need is to love and be loved - this starts with knowing, accepting and continuing your faith in Jesus Christ!

“We love Him because He first loved us!” (1 Jn 4: 19)

Pastor Rodney