Hi

On a not regular enough basis I put on my running shoes and try and do as I have done since I was about twelve, and that is to get out and run for an hour or so (or as far as I am able, then walk). One of my routes is down our road and out across the Fen, although lately due to a near death experience with a large cow with no udders and a strong attraction to my red shorts I now tend to stick to the road and stay out of the fields, public footpath or not!

It was on one of these occasions as I left my front door that this scripture from the bible popped into my head.

Heb 11:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen.

Then at the first lamp post, “Between the Asking and the answer there is Faith”.

All this was in the first hundred yards, so I knew that the next few miles were going to be busy and sure enough by the time I got to the 3^rd lamp post the trickle had turned into a flood and I began to understand what the Holy Spirit was trying to say to me and it goes like this.

When I start my run I always plan it as a loop, maybe with different routes but it is a loop that will always bring me home. Faith is the same, because it is a journey from the asking to the answer, it has a start and end and in between there is faith. So as I leave my front door, regardless of it being the short route (oh yes please) or a route fit for a marathon, it is still a journey with a beginning and finish and no matter how long it takes I will always arrive home.

But before I go any further there is one point I must make and that is when we ask God for something he will always answer. Mat 21:22 says “whatever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive”. There must be no debate, doubt or unbelieving thought that maybe almighty God missed our voice because he was busy saving an island somewhere. No he always answers, because between the asking and the answer, as we watch and wait there is simply faith.

Back on my run I was approaching the end of the first mile, which meant that the immediate urge to collapse due to asphyxiation was passed and I was transitioning into what I call normal pain, and its here that I hit my first hill.

Now the thing I have learnt about running up a hill is:

§ Don’t stop.

§ Keep you’re pace the same but just narrow the step.

By doing this I normally manage to tackle most hills but dependant on the incline it may appear that I am standing still as the pace becomes so narrow.

So it is with our journey of faith, because sometimes it seems that we are standing still and there is no answer fourth coming, and there are times when we have our head down and all we can see is the road stretching upward.

It’s at this point that we must not give up, we must not doubt that we can make it to the top, and it is here that our faith is tested; it is here the race is won or lost.

So little by little I climb the hill, and oh the joy as I reach the summit because suddenly my body and heart cease to strain and I am greeted with a view that is worth any trial. At the top of the hill I can see clearly for miles and laid out in front of me is the way home.

Of course home and the answer we are waiting for may still be some way off but when we are “In Faith” we are able to see it and we know that it is only a matter of time before we get our reward and just like my run it may take me an hour or two hours but God will always get me home.

My dear friend, you have asked and God has heard your prayer. Do not give up because you are nearly at the top of the rise and the answer is coming swiftly.

Bless you Pastor Rob