Off to the Races (Friday Devotional)

 

“But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.”

- 1 Timothy 6:11

You can tell something’s special when you’re willing to run for it. Nobody goes darting down the grocery store aisles at top speed, no matter how much of a rush they’re in. People don’t sprint from their car to the front door of their house unless something’s on fire. But when you hear that your favorite store is giving away $1,000 gift cards to the next 5 customers to walk through the door—suddenly you’re off to the races, whether you’re wearing Nikes or high heels.

You can also see how threatening something is by whether you’re run compelled to run from it. When a yippy Chihuahua comes racing toward you at top speed, you probably just bend down to check its tags, but when an angry Rottweiler does the same thing, you take off in the opposite direction. Some threats we choose to confront, but the most terrifying we flee from.

In one of Paul’s letters to his disciple, Timothy, he offers wisdom about what spiritual things we ought to run from. He points to false teachers who are “trapped by many senseless and harmful desires,” specifically the love of money and possessions. This is an issue we still struggle with today. So often our contentment, security, and happiness come from accumulating material things and stockpiling wealth, rather than remembering Jesus’ words about storing up treasures in heaven. Paul not only cautions us to avoid the love of money, he says to flee from it—to run the other direction, because of all the things that can distract us from God, it is one of the most threatening.

But in commanding us to flee, Paul does not leave us without direction, aimlessly running one way with no destination in mind. Instead, he tells us what to run toward—righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Not only are these things we ought to consider or learn about, they are virtues we are told to pursue, to run after. For while finding your contentment and your fulfillment in earthly things is something threatening enough to run from, finding contentment in the things of God is special enough to run for.

Think about what captivates you enough to run. What are you pursuing and what are you fleeing? Examine your heart and ask yourself whether you are driven more by the things of God or the things of this world. Scripture compares faith to “running the race”—so are you running toward God, or toward something else?