Running Into Whole

By Alia Freeman

Are you running fast through life? Have you been avoiding people, situations, or circumstances that require you to be patient or communicate hard things? We all reach this point of life at times, but it’s a choice whether to deal with it or to run from it.
This book is filled with poems, prayers, and short stories of daily life challenges and obstacles that can help you develop a relationship with Christ, gain a deeper understanding of him, or become more intimate with Christ. We have a choice between dealing with the weight of the world on our own or doing it like Christ does.
Running into Whole will help you become whole while growing through the hardships.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887510705

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Running Into Whole

Alia Freeman

ISBN 979-8-88751-069-9 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88751-070-5 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Alia Freeman

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

This book is filled with poems, prayers, and short stories of daily life challenges and obstacles that can help you develop a relationship with Christ, gain a deeper understanding, or become more intimate with Christ.

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

Are You a Runner?

Who Do You Run To?

Turning My Heart Back to God

Grow Strong in Patience

Protector of Peace

Building a Heart in the Ships

Who's Your Daddy?

A Letter to My Father

Forgiving the Unforgiven

Faith After Failure

Who's the Real Enemy?

Success

In This Place

Locked Up in the Wrong Identity

Arrived at the Destination—Too Soon

Rest Is Purposeful

Looking for the Perfect Church

Running from the Perfect Love

You Have Been Chosen

Your Will or His Will

Free to Be

About the Author

Introduction

You know that only one person gets a crown for being in a race even if many people run. You must run so you will win the crown. Everyone who runs in a race does many things so his body will be strong. He does it to get a crown that will soon be worth nothing, but we work for a crown that will last forever. In the same way, I run straight for the place at the end of the race. I fight to win. I do not beat the air. I keep working over my body. I make it obey me. I do this because I am afraid that after I have preached the Good News to others, I myself might be put aside. (1 Corinthians 9:24–27)

We are all in this race together. The race is set at a different pace for each of us to get to the same destination— heaven . That's the place. It's the reward that we will receive once the race is all done. This book provides the keys to wholeness. We must understand that life is a journey filled with different battles, victories, heartaches, rejections, betrayals, hurts, losses, fears, and traumas. When we don't understand why we go through the things we do, our response to the situations shows this.

This book will show you how to fight and face any situation. It can cause us to run away from them. This world was never created to give us peace, but it is the Lord himself that provides the peace we need to live peacefully in a chaotic world.

Before you gather some type of perception that this book is going to shape and paint a pretty picture, well, it's not. I'm far from being perfect. I have had many traumas and life trials that could have killed me, but instead, I made the choice to heal from what broke me. I'll be sure to share parts of my life, through this book, which may be relatable for you in any form. But most importantly, this book will challenge you to grow spiritually and physically. It will allow you to see things in a new way so you can heal from anything you may be running from. Be patient with yourself as you process through the truth of your trauma. But most importantly, do the work. It's my prayer that you gain freedom in every aspect of your life as you complete this book.

I've been saved for almost nine years, and it has been a journey! I need people to understand that this walk in Christianity is a journey, not a destination. It's ongoing and filled with several highs and lows. During my walk with Christ, I've experienced that I'm-on-top-of-the-world kind of faith to that I'm-down-in-the-valley-where-all-you-have-is-God kind of faith.

There have been times where I have drifted so far away from God, but his grace found me and brought me back. During my walk with Christ, I've gone through numerous traumatizing experiences and unexpectedly reached the darkest seasons of my life. After running from one trauma to the next, one day, I was no longer running from circumstances but running into the arms of my heavenly Father.

Once I ran into his arms and gained the fullness of his presence, my life changed! My transformation allowed me to go from broken to healed, from healed to whole, and from whole to free. I am no longer a slave but free in Christ indeed! It is an amazing feeling to feel alive again.

I won't tell you all the details right now, but I guarantee you there's so much inside this book that you will be able to relate to. You'll be able to gain insight and revelation of how to become free in your own life. This book will help you if you have lost your connection with God and want to reconnect. It can also help you build or become more intimate in your relationship with Christ. Wherever you are in your walk with Christ, I pray that this book brings deliverance and freedom from any deeply rooted traumas or life experiences you may be facing that hinder your spiritual growth. So lace up your tennis shoes as we run together to become whole!

Chapter 1

Are You a Runner?

Iwas a runner. When you think of a runner, you immediately think of someone wearing shorts in a relay race or jogging on the side of the road with headphones on. Most runners run for a long time, stop to catch a few breaths, and then they're at it again. That's exactly how I ran through life. I ran from situation to situation with slight breaths in between and kept running as though those problems didn't exist. I believe the vision of the runner wearing headphones exemplified me playing deaf to the truth of each situation. Every downfall, failure, disappointment, trial, or tribulation comes with a valuable lesson. If it's not considered, you will eventually get tired of running one day and stop to face the truth.

Now this book won't be just about running from life's problems. I would like to share with you how I shifted from running away from the will of God to running into the blessings that he had promised for my life once I decided to surrender to him.

What is a runner? A runner is a person who runs, especially in a specified way.

Are you running from God? Running from truthful situations? Or maybe you haven't faced enough hardships to be able to move in God's timing. Some obstacles in life take a lot longer than others to overcome. It is important that you keep patience throughout your process so you can endure effectively while waiting on God's timing. It is my prayer that you no longer run from things or people to avoid facing the things that will help you grow and heal.

Philippians 3:14 reads,

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

We are alongside this journey together as we strive to win the real reward of this life. This book will help you embrace running in a whole new way.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Alia, happy birthday to you."

It was my twenty-ninth birthday, and I was praying for a good year. That day was the start of the most devastating yet blessed year of my life. Does that even make sense? Let's just say hell broke loose in every area of my life. So much happened to me, and it was totally out of my control. I was a runner. I ran from everything that involved changing, evolving, facing hard truths, or just simply being present in my life. God placed me in hard spaces in my life that I had no way out of. I was so used to bailing myself out of life by creating excuses that I didn't realize how much I crippled my own growth.

When I faced everything that I was running from, it only drowned me for twenty minutes before I realized I needed some help. I was no longer able to do things on my own strength, knowledge, or understanding. The moment I asked God for help, I began to see and feel the hand of God over my