Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus ...
LIVE FOCUSED
The Scriptures here compare the things that would hinder us in our Christian life to those things runners take off before the race begins, so that nothing they wear might trip them up as they run. Every day we need to deal with the sins that are most likely to reoccur in our lives and trip us up. That is, cause us to sin or fall from the faith so that we do not finish the race.
This is serious. More serious than many of the things that we are especially careful about in our daily lives. These are sins that we need to take action against in our prayers in the morning, so that they are not among the sins we need to confess in the evening. We need to look to the Savior and go to him. So that in the strength of his forgiveness, we are able to say NO to Satan as he places obstacles in our way, and tries to push us off course.
Christians who have already run life's race can encourage us. They can even inspire us. But for strength and help in living as Christ's people, for strength to run life's race, we need to look to Jesus -- every day we need to keep our eyes focused on Christ our Lord.
To run with endurance -- to keep on living the life of Christ's people, the life of faith -- calls for strength we don't have. Those who've gone before us can witness to us about what God did for them. Much God has recorded in Scripture does exactly that. But we need more. We need help. Our fellow Christians can steady us along the way. We look to the goal -- eternal glory and we are inspired. But finally, only Christ gives us the strength to run. Only Jesus can enable us to live as His disciples -- and hold fast to Him.
