Pressing in for breakthrough

I just got back from a six mile run with three guys from church. With the exception of being forced to run about a mile one day in May, I haven't run at all since June of last year. I am happy to say that I ran the first 2.5 miles without walking. However, after that point I walked most of the way back around the loop. However, when I could see the end I went for it again, running faster than I had run at any other point. I could see my goal and wanted to finish strong. I could have just kept walking, I mean it was 105 degrees outside, but there is something in me that won't just throw in the towel and give up. It is possible that I won't go running again anytime soon since it is a very low priority for me, but if I do, I know that I will need to challenge myself to run more and walk less. Don't worry, there is a point to this.

Two times in the past week I have had friends come over for a "Glory night." The goal of these nights is to seek the face of God by giving Him the glory through praise and worship. The idea is that we must go beyond what is convenient and comfortable and actually give a sacrifice of praise to God. My friend Zach said it well, "the higher our praise goes, the deeper our worship will be." I found that to be true during the second night when I had trouble breaking through with my praise and then found that my worship was much shallower than it had been the first time around. Zach read us a quote by Ruth Heflin who said, "When you discover things that seem to contribute to the glory, do those things more; and when you find things that seem to diminish the glory, stop doing them. It's as simple as that." Run more and walk less.

I have found that even with all the hunger for God there is still the element of time and convenience. I set aside an hour to pray in tongues. I soak for an hour. I might read my bible for an hour. Occassionally I might block of more time for one of these, but typically it is set in stone. I thought of that this morning as I prayed. I abruptly stopped at one hour just because it was an hour, even though I was gaining momentum.

It would have been pointless for me to stop running after one mile because I was still feeling great. When you can meet your goal and still have energy you shouldn't stop, but rather go for greater Glory! If you are wanting to go to another level, you can't continue to do the same things that you are already doing, you must press in for breakthrough! I will not be able to run 6 miles if I always stop once I reach the 2.5 mile marker. We won't see the Glory of God in our meetings if we stop short of His Glory. We have to praise higher and worship deeper.

Last night was an experiment. We had no instruments and we didn't put on any CDs. We didn't have a worship leader. After we went for maybe two hours we stopped and began talking. I knew that we should press in again, but my flesh didn't want to. We shared some great things and had very meaningful conversation for another few hours, however I knew that next time we meet together there would be no excuse for not pressing in again. After walking at least a mile and a half I knew that I had no excuse to not press in and run the last mile or so. You don't get breakthrough when you give up, you get it when you press in, running more and walking less - doing the things that contribute to the glory more and doing things that detract from the glory less.