Sunday Prayer: Sustainable Pace

Father, I started this year sprinting, and I'm already tired. I made ambitious plans that assumed I could maintain January energy through December. I forgot that faithfulness is measured in years and decades, not weeks and months. Forgive my unsustainable intensity.

Teach me to run the race you've set before me, not the race I think will impress others. Help me find rhythms I can maintain when motivation fades and discipline is all that's left. Show me the difference between the faithful thing and the flashy thing, between sustainable obedience and exhausting intensity.

I don't want to burn out by March and coast through the rest of the year on guilt and regret. I want to still be running in November, still obeying in ordinary moments, still faithful when no one's watching. Give me wisdom to pace myself, grace to rest without guilt, and perseverance to keep going when the work gets boring. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Help me run accordingly.