YouTube Channel Video Devo
“Give Thanks In All Things”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NLT
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to run my first half marathon here in Mankato. This past week I have been mentally processing what happened and thinking through the whole experience. I’ve thought about how I prepared for many months to increase my distance and endurance, and then the day came in hopes for all the preparation to pay off.
I did my best to take into account what all issues I could possibly face. I wasn’t preparing for a bad race by any means, but I just went through several scenarios in my head as I mentally prepared for what might come. For months, I had been focusing on a certain pace that I wanted to keep, but as the time got closer within a couple of weeks, I finally just came to the mindset of, “I just want to finish and enjoy the experience”. That’s the attitude I took into it. I wanted to complete it…..running the whole time.
On race day, the hype of everything was amazing. Being around thousands of runners definitely gave me a “runners high”. The Saturday before I had run the course by myself to get a feel for it so that I knew what to expect. As I ran the race, I just enjoyed the experience and asked God to give me the endurance. After mile 7, I started having a side pain and knee problems. I decided to slow my pace down to help with making the pain tolerable. After a few more miles, I felt like I had it managed enough to keep running and finish. I just kept praying for God to help me finish.
As I think back, I ran into issues and I was prepared to deal with them. Thankfully, God blessed me to finish while still running. Every runner in the world would love to run a race with NO issues at all. However, that’s just not reality. Almost every runner experiences some setback at some point that is not expected.
This past week I have remembered this is exactly like life. We simply cannot expect a life that is void of any problems. That is not reality and not the life God promised us. However, He did promise to always be present with us, guiding us and helping us through. Throughout the race, I was doing my best to give God thanks no matter the outcome. No matter what obstacles I was facing, I wanted to focus on being thankful for the experience. In life, we all experience setbacks and obstacles and we need to learn to give thanks no matter the circumstances. God will bring us through. We need to adjust our attitude and see things in a different light and perspective so that we can focus on Him and trust that He knows what He is doing.
“Give Thanks In All Things”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NLT
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to run my first half marathon here in Mankato. This past week I have been mentally processing what happened and thinking through the whole experience. I’ve thought about how I prepared for many months to increase my distance and endurance, and then the day came in hopes for all the preparation to pay off.
I did my best to take into account what all issues I could possibly face. I wasn’t preparing for a bad race by any means, but I just went through several scenarios in my head as I mentally prepared for what might come. For months, I had been focusing on a certain pace that I wanted to keep, but as the time got closer within a couple of weeks, I finally just came to the mindset of, “I just want to finish and enjoy the experience”. That’s the attitude I took into it. I wanted to complete it…..running the whole time.
On race day, the hype of everything was amazing. Being around thousands of runners definitely gave me a “runners high”. The Saturday before I had run the course by myself to get a feel for it so that I knew what to expect. As I ran the race, I just enjoyed the experience and asked God to give me the endurance. After mile 7, I started having a side pain and knee problems. I decided to slow my pace down to help with making the pain tolerable. After a few more miles, I felt like I had it managed enough to keep running and finish. I just kept praying for God to help me finish.
As I think back, I ran into issues and I was prepared to deal with them. Thankfully, God blessed me to finish while still running. Every runner in the world would love to run a race with NO issues at all. However, that’s just not reality. Almost every runner experiences some setback at some point that is not expected.
This past week I have remembered this is exactly like life. We simply cannot expect a life that is void of any problems. That is not reality and not the life God promised us. However, He did promise to always be present with us, guiding us and helping us through. Throughout the race, I was doing my best to give God thanks no matter the outcome. No matter what obstacles I was facing, I wanted to focus on being thankful for the experience. In life, we all experience setbacks and obstacles and we need to learn to give thanks no matter the circumstances. God will bring us through. We need to adjust our attitude and see things in a different light and perspective so that we can focus on Him and trust that He knows what He is doing.
