RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Running Hills
Hebrews 12:1-3; Philippians 3:10
I want to speak to you today in our devotion time about Running Hills. One of the most difficult things you’ll ever do in working out is running hills, but do you know what I’ve discovered? That’s where strength comes from. That’s where God’s grace is made sufficient. That’s where we become more like Jesus. It’s not always running downhill or being on top of the mountain that we experience revival and renewal. It’s when we’re going up the hill, because then we need God. It’s then that we call out unto God, and we say, “Oh God, I desperately need you.”
In Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 1, it tells us, “…run with endurance the race that is set before us…” Then it goes on in verse 2 to say, “…looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith…” Then in verse 3, it tells us what to look unto Jesus, a particular part of his life. It talks about how he was rejected, how he was persecuted, how he was nailed to a cross, and how he climbed the most difficult hill ever known to mankind: a hill called Mount Calvary.
We look unto Jesus. He is our example. If we’re going to become like Jesus, that means we’re going to face some difficult times. It’s not going to be a bed of roses. It’s not going to be all ice cream and punch and just a great time in life. There are going to be some tough times. In fact, whenever I first started running, I remember I was being trained with a friend of mine. We had this hill we would run. It was so long that I gave that hill a name. In fact, you’ll discover among runners, when there’s a really tough hill, they’ll always give it a name.
In Boston in the Boston Marathon, there’s a hill called “Heartbreak Hill.” Well, the hill we ran in Germany I called “Difficulty” because it was so hard and so long and so difficult to get up. Do you know what? Whenever I’d climb that hill, I would have to look unto the Lord, and I would trust in God. God would give me the strength to make it on top of that hill. When you face a difficulty in life, that’s an opportunity for you to look to God. It’s an opportunity for you to be made more like Jesus.
The apostle Paul said, “That I might know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” Often, we’re made more like Christ during those difficult times when we experience suffering, when we experience pain, those difficult times. Don’t waste your sorrows. Don’t waste your difficulties. Don’t waste those hills called “Difficulty,” but let them make you more like Jesus.