Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and overran Cushi
2 Samuel 18:23
Running is not everything, there is much in the way which we
select: a swift foot over hill and down dale will not keep pace with
a slower traveller upon level ground. How is it with my spiritual
journey, am I labouring up the hill of my own works and down into the
ravines of my own humiliations and resolutions, or do I run by the
plain way of "Believe and live"? How blessed is it to wait upon the
Lord by faith! The soul runs without weariness, and walks without
fainting, in the way of believing. Christ Jesus is the way of life,
and He is a plain way, a pleasant way, a way suitable for the
tottering feet and feeble knees of trembling sinners: am I found in
this way, or am I hunting after another track such as priestcraft or
metaphysics may promise me? I read of the way of holiness, that the
wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein: have I been
delivered from proud reason and been brought as a little child to
rest in Jesus' love and blood? If so, by God's grace I shall outrun
the strongest runner who chooses any other path. This truth I may
remember to my profit in my daily cares and needs. It will be my
wisest course to go at once to my God, and not to wander in a
roundabout manner to this friend and that. He knows my wants and can
relieve them, to whom should I repair but to Himself by the direct
appeal of prayer, and the plain argument of the
promise. "Straightforward makes the best runner." I will not parlay
with the servants, but hasten to their master.
In reading this passage, it strikes me that if men vie with each
other in common matters, and one outruns the other, I ought to be in
solemn earnestness so to run that I may obtain. Lord, help me to gird
up the loins of my mind, and may I press forward towards the mark for
the prize of my high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
