The Runaway – The Reason We RunSample

We All Run 

Do you recall a time in your childhood when you tried to run away? I’ve heard some crazy stories of people trying to run away. Maybe you were one of the ones that had a piggy bank and money saved up and actually made it to the bus. I don’t have a personal story of ever running away from my house. I liked milk and cookies and they were brought to me, so why would I leave paradise? I do however, remember countless times of my dog Rusty running away. 

When we first got Rusty, he would run away from the house. I don’t know why dogs do that, being that they are the most loyal animal a man can have. But Rusty would dig a way out of the fence line and I would have to chase him down the street. Sometimes I would have to ride my bike to the front of the neighborhood looking for him. Sometimes he would just be at the neighbor’s yard, marking his territory. 

In the book of Jonah, we learn that there are great lengths that God goes to capture and to find a runaway. All of us in some point, shape or fashion have run away from God. You might be thinking, “Not me Josh. I’m here reading this plan because I am where I am supposed to be now.” 

Yet, because of the sin nature in our lives, we all have the propensity to run away from God. When God gives us instructions or calls us to do certain things in our lives, it is our knee jerk reaction to actually do the opposite thing or run in the opposite direction. When God calls us to purity before marriage, what do we do? We do the opposite thing. When He calls us to steward our finances appropriately back into His house or His plans, it is our knee jerk reaction to go the opposite way with them. Why?

Paul lays it out clearly in the New Testament, we have a sin nature called the flesh and a new nature called the spirit man that is always waging war against each other. This is the nature of the Christian journey. This is why we must mature to be all that God has called us to be. There is a war that is always there, and it is always about the decision of doing what God has called us to do or running away from it. 

If you’d like to enjoy the video for this teaching, please follow the link:

https://subsplash.com/wakechurch/messages/mi/+ypg8y8g