A common question every Christian often has is, “What is the Lord’s will for my life?” That is no less true for myself. I seek the Lord almost daily in prayer, asking HIM what His will is for my life that day. Some days, it isn’t a struggle to know it as I focus on that one or two things He has shown me as I go about my daily life. I put my hand to the next thing on my to do list or sometimes, it’s in the conversations I have with the people He brings into my path. But then there are those other days where I hardly know what to do.

As a writer, the question about what I write about looms foremost in my mind. It often blocks out all other things. And sometimes, I feel torn as I feel my writing gift may become a type of idol before GOD. I have gone back and forth about that very issue for many years. In fact, there was a time when I was in college that I laid down my writing for that very reason. I had felt the the LORD wanted me to do so. A few years after that, I felt the LORD release me from that. I began to write poetry again which later led to me writing other forms of writing. But even so, I continued to struggle in that debate in my own head, in spite of my desire to write.

Just last month, as I wrestled with those thoughts again, I found myself reading through Habakkuk. The portion of Habakkuk 2:2 seemed to jump off the page as I read it. Even though I had read it numerous times before, I had never noticed the last part of that verse. It said:

                              “Then the LORD answered me and said: ‘Write the vision 

                               and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.” Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV

“That he may run who reads it.” The first part of the verse I had heard of before about  “write the vision.” It was obvious that the LORD was telling the prophet to write. But the word “run” jumped out to me as I read further, capturing my attention. That message stirred deep in my spirit. The writing done by this person would cause another person who read it to run better. It would encourage them to run and to continue running. And thus they would “run” in their walk or journey with Jesus.

When I looked up the word run in the Bible, I found at least 15 references to running in the Bible. The one a lot of people remember is Hebrews 12:1 NKJV.

“Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely and
let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

A good example of a person who wrote to encourage others to run their race with the LORD was Paul. He wrote many letters to encourage and teach other believers in the Bible.  His purpose was that they could walk or run in their personal journey with Jesus. He may have known of that reference to running in Habakkuk. Paul had been taught the scriptures from a young age and was an Old Testament scholar. Whether he knew about it or not, he was obeying that scripture.

Habakkuk 2:2 confirmed to me that the LORD wanted me to write as it spoke of how the writing would encourage another person to run. Taking that in mind, I realized that Jesus called me to write, And that it glorified the LORD as it encouraged others to press in and run harder after HIM.