Finding Joy (Delight) In the Race

In this episode, I go over 3 verses that have reminded me to find joy in the race even when things get rough!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Running A Race. First of all, I sound nasally or funny because I'm just a little under the weather, but I didn't want a week to go by without uh dropping an episode. Uh so today's episode is titled Finding Joy in the Race, and then I put a slash uh for the late or delight. Um so part of the reason why I didn't want another week to go by was because this is something that God has been working with me this past month, uh, but really, really hard uh in this past week. I know a lot of times, you know, people quote I think it's Romans 8 28. I've I've put it before in another episode. It's like we know that all things work together for the good of those that love him. There's another one that kinda ties into that, and we're I'm gonna tie it into the title, and that's gonna be Philippians 2 13, and it says, For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now when we look at his good pleasure, or when we look at good pleasure, comes from the Greek word uh eudokia, which is G2107, and it says that it's uh satisfaction that is subjectively delight or objectively kindness with wish, purpose, desire, good pleasure, will, and then to seem good. This really led me down the little uh Greek rabbit hole, I guess we could say, where I was just kind of looking, okay, what else has to do with good pleasure? Like, I get it, but it wasn't like fully there for me yet. So I came across Ephesians 1.9 and it said, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. I like the word that it says mystery right there, just because it's like okay, we don't always understand why God is doing certain things until like maybe after the fact or even um not just maybe after the fact, but like really after the fact, you know. But I like that this also uh once again said good pleasure, and not just good pleasure, but his good pleasure. That led me to the last verse that I'm gonna touch on today, and it's Second Thessalonians first uh 11, and it says, Wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power. When it comes to joy and running our race, we also have to have a community of people that are praying for us and that are lifting us up so that we um don't get distracted, you know, we don't get off course. It also caught my attention a lot that it said of his goodness, um we could see that it has a lot to do with um the Romans verse that I had mentioned earlier, where maybe we don't understand or maybe we don't see certain situations as good in the moment, but we never know. And I like I I've heard this before, right? And I think there's even a song that says it right, and I'll praising the valley, I'll praising the storm. Um but then I've also heard it in preaching, I recently heard it in a preaching earlier this week. But I've also heard not to lose your vision, uh, when you know things start popping up where it could seem like the whole world is collapsing on you, but you have to keep going. Um not just because, you know what he can give, which I was one of the takeaways I got from this verse, but it's also because we want to do good. And that's where I found another version. Uh all the all the versions I read earlier were the KJV, but for this version I'm gonna read the International Uh Children's Bible, and that is and it's the same verse, the 2nd Thessalonians 1.11, and it says, That is why we always pray for you. We ask our God to help you to live the good way that He called you to live. The goodness you have makes you want to do good, and the faith you have makes you work. We pray that with His power God will help you do these things more and more. I feel like that really simplified that verse, and it really just made it very clear. You know, I separated the verse in a very transparent way, just main key takeaways, right? Is to live the the way he called you to live, which is the good way, um, to for you to want to do good, keep the faith, run on faith as well. A lot of people know, especially if you've been with me for a while now, uh, my song Faith, uh, I got faith in a bag. Da da da, right. Just a reminder, you know, keep running on faith, keep doing good. Maybe things don't seem right right now, but just keep going, keep finding pleasure in what is going good, and try not to let what's what's going bad, you know, tear you down. Um, but find the good in the situation, you know, or ask God, you know, uh, maybe not why I'm going through this in a complaining way, but what are you trying to teach me? Which is something that um I've heard from quite a few people, and I think that that's a really big takeaway on helping you uh process things as well. So um that's all I have, and I don't want to straighten my ways too much. So uh thank you for watching, listening. Um, I'll catch y'all on the next one, and I pray that this is a blessing for y'all. Thank y'all, peace out.