Pace

In this episode of Running Our Race, we explore the importance of trusting God's pace for our lives instead of comparing our journey to someone else's. The Christian life isn't about rushing to the finish line, it's about faithfully walking in God's grace one step at a time.

Through 1 Corinthians 15:10, Psalm 139:14, Romans 8:37, and 2 Corinthians 12:9, we discover that our strength doesn't come from striving but from God's grace. He has uniquely created each of us with purpose, equips us in our weaknesses, and empowers us to overcome every challenge through Christ. Whether you're feeling behind, overwhelmed, or tempted to compare your progress with others, this episode is a reminder that God is more concerned with your faithfulness than your speed.

Reflection Questions:

• Are you trying to run someone else's race instead of embracing the pace God has set for you?
• In what areas of your life are you relying on your own strength instead of God's grace?
• How can you find contentment in the season and pace God has you in today?
• What would it look like to trust God's process instead of rushing His timing?

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain." — 1 Corinthians 15:10

Remember: It's a marathon, not a sprint. Stay the course, trust God's pace, and keep running the race He has set before you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Running Our Race. Today's episode is titled Pace. Pace. I wanted to tie into a quote that I've seen in preachings. I've seen it on social media. I've seen it in a lot of places. But it's referring to how our race, um maybe the race of life we can say, is a marathon, it's not a sprint. Before I was in track, I kind of had a question, you know, it was what's the difference between track and cross country? Well, the difference is in track it's more of the sprints where it's like a hundred, two hundred, uh, three hundred, four hundred meters, right? Whereas in cross country, you're running more like a marathon style where it's like more miles, different types of terrains. I was thinking about that, um, and tying it into the last episode uh which referred to timing. Um we are supposed to be keeping our own pace, right? Not everything is gonna be at the same timing as maybe one of our peers or someone that we maybe look up to, right? And we want to be exactly like them, maybe, but the the point is we're not supposed to be like them, right? We're supposed to be like Christ. And maybe we can take the good out of those people, but we also have our own race to run. And so with that, I wanted to start off with a verse, uh, 1 Corinthians 15 10. And But by the grace of God am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. Though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. So when I was tying this in with pace, I was really thinking about how a lot of times we're running at um at the pace we're supposed to, right? But occasionally we may get like, oh, I'm not running fast enough, or we may get in our heads about how we're not running fast enough, or we're running too slow, whatnot. Um But at the end of the day, especially in this race that we are in, there's probably been times where you probably felt like you wanted to give up. And here is a reminder This race that we're running is by the grace of God. It's not with our own strengths, it's not with our own effort, we could say, right? Because I think a lot of times doors that we want to open are not gonna open when we want them. They're gonna open when God deems us ready, but also when we also don't put all our focus on it. So it's like if we constantly are focused on our finish line, we're not gonna be focused on maybe an obstacle or a hurdle that's in front of us that we need to conquer before we can even get to the finish line that's maybe you know 400 meters away, we could say. And so with that being said, getting off pace, you know, uh not focusing on our pace can affect our identity. And so I just want to encourage y'all with this verse, which is Psalms 139-14, and it says, I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well. But I also want to add Romans 837, no, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Not just grace, it's not just us being wonderfully made. We're more than conquerors, and he loves us. That we can continue our pace, we can continue even when we feel like we can't, we can continue and we can keep going. I came across 2 Corinthians 12 9 and said, But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more badly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. We see weakness, right? And what we may see as weakness, um is what Christ a lot of times ends up using, right? What God ends up using. I've seen it quite a few times, you know, where some of the most timid people end up becoming or not not the most outgoing people become like uh public speakers that like God elevated, not man-made, like oh uh, or they wanted they wanted that recognition. It was more like God lifted them up and they had that in them. Obviously, they had to go through a process on the side, and there was their own race that they had to do, that they had their own pace. But sometimes people compare themselves to those kind of people and they're like, Well, I'm not where they are, and I want to be where they are, but that's not one, your race, and two. It's n you're you're not running at the same pace as them. So sometimes we think, oh, we want what they have, but we didn't run the same race as them, and we're not willing to commit to the pace that they are running. So, like, they're not willing to run fast when God says go fast, and run slow when God says go slow. I also wanted to add with pace uh something that I read in the devotional, and it really touched my heart uh when I was reading this devotional the other day, and it said that my value isn't found in what I do, but in who I belong to. I'm a child of God created for good works, and my purpose is rooted in Christ, not my performance. The more I rooted myself in God's word, the more the lies lost their power. My worth is not measured by my achievements, by what Jesus has already done for me. Not being affected by my performance was something that really uh spoke to me at the time because I was judging my performance a lot. Uh not just in one area, but like in a lot of areas. And so uh with that being said, pray you continue to run your race in excellence, but I also pray that you don't compare your pace to someone else's pace or your timing to other people's timings. You are running your own race, and as long as you're running it with God and you're doing it in obedience and you're following what he says, it doesn't matter what other people's race looks like. Focus on your own race. That's all I have for y'all today. I pray God use me to speak to y'all, and I pray that this is a blessing to all of y'all that tuned in. Catch y'all on the next one.