2 Chronicles 31:21 "And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered."
A few years back, I was invited by some friends and family to go watch them run the Long Beach Marathon. I let them know I would go, and then decided a couple of weeks before the race, that as long as I was going to be at the race, I may as well run it with them. I had been doing some running and felt I was in pretty good shape, I had also run a couple of marathons so I figured I could run another one pretty easily. I was very casual about the race, and showed up race day having done very little training.
I started the race just fine, but around mile 16, my legs, my back, my lungs, and my stomach, all let me know that I should not have ventured to run this 26.2 miles with such a nonchalant attitude. I finished the race but felt miserable. My legs were cramped, I was dizzy, and I lost my cookies a couple of times. My race recovery, which should have taken a couple of days, took a couple of weeks. Usually when I do something boneheaded the Lord has a lesson for me, and this time the lesson was simple....never take on a difficult task halfheartedly.
This application of this lesson is both practical and spiritual. The Lord desires that our commitment to Him be wholehearted. He does not want dabbling, nonchalant followers, but those who have counted the cost and desire to put forth full effort.
Our halfhearted efforts for the Lord usually end up in our getting hurt or burned, and our witness being discredited. On the contrary, our greatest power and joy and peace come in those times that we give the Lord our best. Our call to the Lord is a long distance race, let's set our hearts to be disciplined, giving Him our best every single day.
