God Messed Up My Run this Weekend

I have not been running as much as I should the past few months. My life has been so crazy with getting everything going at the TV station that I basically run out of time at the end of the day to go home as run. Although I have a gym membership, I am not a “treadmill” kind of person and living in Colorado affords me many opportunities through the entire year to run outside. So this past weekend it was 55 degrees and sunny on Saturday afternoon so I decided to go for a run.

My normal mode when I run is to start out slower than I end so I focus on a ½ to ¼ mile run as fast as I can back to my car. My run started like any other with pacing myself slower when I started knowing that I was going to get a good clip in at the end of my run. The problem was that God had other things in mind.

I was listening to the new Natalie Grant album “Be One” that is mostly worship. If anyone knows me, I normally use my runs to pray for people but this was different. I was just getting ready to do my last ¼ mile of my run at top speed and I felt God tell me, “turn your music off, and pray for the land to be redeemed as you walk on the trail back to your car.” Immediately the beginning of the scripture in Deuteronomy 11:24 came to mind “Every place where you set your foot will be yours…” I have had enough times where I felt like God was telling me something and I disobeyed or was slow to drag my feet and comply but this was not one of them. I immediately turned off my music and walked back to my car praying instead of my “fast as I could run” clip I had planned, and it felt great.
I have also been listening to Crowder’s song “Lift Your Head Weary Sinner” the last few weeks and it has been giving me a heart for people coming back to God and not worrying about any kind of shame from their past. I think this is part spiritual and the strongholds that the Devil has over towns and people just living in deception that they can walk in freedom. I am now going to be much more alert and aware of when God is telling me things and asking me to be obedient in praying to redeem the land and where I place my feet.

I want to challenge you to not just go through life today and make it business as usual or to let your routine run your life. Sometimes it’s important that you let God “mess up your run” and use you for eternal things in the spiritual realm that you could never dream of or imagine. It may be something as simple as praying over a ¼ mile stretch of running trail that God has greater purposes for than for exercise. Have a great week!