“… let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” – Hebrews12:1b-3
Perseverance … a certain ‘stick-to-it’ attitude; a ‘never give up’ type of stance. To fix your eyes on Jesus is to look straight ahead, to look at what lies directly before you. We are to look to Jesus, who is standing directly in front of us. Our faith is in Christ; our faith is in God. They are one in the same.
It is unbelievable to me that Jesus considered it pure joy to go to the cross. I am assuming it was because He knew what that one single act of selflessness would do. He knew that the bloody beating He took would be for our benefit. That is an understatement. The brutal suffering Christ was made to endure was done willingly. He took each lash to His back knowing we wouldn’t have to. Oh don’t kid yourself, He felt the pain. Christ was wholly God and wholly human. He felt each sharp pain just as we would have. Those who needed Him most cast Him aside to be crucified. Crucifixion was reserved for criminals of which Christ was not. We deserved the punishment and the pain. We did; not Him. He took it for us. We are to remember His act of mercy, grace and love so that we do not grow weary and faint. We mustn’t lose heart in the face of the trials we face in this life. There is nothing we will ever have to endure that could even lightly compare with what Christ endured for us. Not one solitary thing.
Let’s look for a moment at the beginning of this portion of scripture. Our relationship with God is likened to a race that is to be run. I ran cross-country in high school. It’s all about pacing yourself. If you race ahead you will burn out and fade towards the end of the race. There was a term for a runner like that. It was ‘rabbit’. Once in a while a team would send out a rabbit who would sprint from the starting line in the attempt to break the pace of the other team’s lead runners. The rabbit was bait. He sprinted as long as he could and then drifted back in the pack. He was never counted on to win the race, just disrupt the pacing of the opposition’s runners. As Christians we must learn to pace ourselves so we don’t grow weary and lose heart.
WALK WITH THE KING TODAY AND BE A BLESSING!!
