The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe
"To Walk and To Run"
"He which once persecuted us now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed" (Galatians 1:23).
From persecutor to preacher, Saul of Tarsus became more familiarly known as the Apostle Paul. A new heart indwelt by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ made such a wonder possible and actual in a man who in his day would have seemed like the most unlikely candidate for the role he played as God's primary apostle of the New Testament.
"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new" (II Corinthians 5:17).
After salvation, Paul identified himself a both a walker and a a runner, both exertions made possible by God's grace in the Lord Jesus:
"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run" (I Corinthians 9:24-26).
"We walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7).
Paul's new Christ-infused and empowered heart led him to walk with God, and to run for God. It must do the same for us as we seek to "walk in the Spirit" and "run the way of Thy commandments" (Galatians 5:16; Psalm 119:32). First, we must believe that we possess Christ's "newness of life," heeding the command to "reckon ye also yourselves to be alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11). We then join Paul in seeking to "serve with my spirit in the Gospel of His Son" (Romans 6:4; 1:9). Do we perceive ourselves accordingly? Do we view ourselves as temples of the living God who created all things, sustains all things, and declares His sons and daughters in Christ to be the scene of His glorious presence and mighty working? If we do, we can expect His leadership and enabling, most often administered quietly along the pathways of life in ways that nevertheless reveal His glory and might. If we do not believe, we become the sad scene analogous to those of whom it was said long ago, "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief" (Matthew 13:58).
A new heart, inhabited by "the Ancient of days" and the glorious One present and active in this day enables, like Paul, our walk and our run (Daniel 7:9). No greater tragedy can be imagined than born again believers ignoring or denying the presence and working of the Christ who suffered, was forsaken, and died to make possible His heart dwelling and active within our own. Whatever path upon which God calls us to walk, or track upon which He commands that we run, we do so through Christ, by Christ, and for Christ. He dwells nearer than our next breath. May our hearts breathe that breath, walking and running in the glory of the grace whereby…
"God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts."
(Galatians 4:6)
Weekly Memory Verse
He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
(Matthew 13:58).
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