In Hebrews 12 we read an expression; “Run this race with endurance”. We all have a race to run and we don’t have an option to escape from it. The best thing we can do is to seek to run this race with God’s grace to the best of our ability. Instead of seeking to turn back, we must seek to run with endurance. In Ephesians we read about the armor of God. We can see that there is no equipment provided to protect the back of the body. This means that turning back and running away from the battle is not an option that is available to us. God doesn’t intend anyone to be fed up and be discouraged and run back.
In Hebrews 12:1 we read, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us”. Endurance means to press on at the same pace. Even if the situation is difficult; don’t give up. In this verse we see two things that can hinder us from this race – the unnecessary entanglement/ ungodly distractions in our life which take us away from the goal and second is the secret sins like addictions which we are not willing to give up. This scripture encourages us to give up unnecessary entanglements and work in the area of besetting sins and seek to sun this race with endurance. In verse 2 we read, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” What is our motivation to run this race? – by fixing our eyes on Jesus. Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. He will finish the work He has started in us. In verse 3 we read, “For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” We are still in our fleshly dwelling and we can be tempted to lose heart and grow weary. But this scripture encourages us to look to Jesus and not give in to those temptations.
When we drive on the road there are speed breakers to slow us down. In our spiritual life too there can be temporary hindrances which we don’t understand and reduces our speed. But God wants us to overcome them and take courage and to not lose focus on what our calling is and to look unto Jesus and run this race with endurance. In Hebrews 10:35 we read, “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.” Don’t throw away the God given confidence. If God has called me to do something, He will give me confidence to do it. Many times, the devil will try to downgrade the faith and confidence which God has given us. He knows that once our courage is lost, our calling becomes vague and foggy and it is easy to defeat us. So let us be careful in this area. In verse 36 we read, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” To receive God’s promises we need to have endurance. Abraham had a promise from God for an offspring and Abraham believed in it. But it didn’t happen immediately. He had to wait and endure. When his situations were going down, His faith in God was stronger. Similarly in our lives, we can’t just give up on Gods’ promises and go away. In verse 38 we read, “But My righteous one shall live by faith; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” We are not called to live by our feelings. Our feelings are transient. We shouldn’t put our confidence in our feelings. It saddens God’s heart if we decide to shrink back and go back.
When the Israelites were under slavery of the Egyptians they cried out to God and God in His appropriate time heard their prayer and delivered them under the leadership of Moses. He performed unusual miracles for them. They reached the outskirts of the Promised Land and some of them saw the fruitfulness of the promised land. They saw with their own eyes the greatness of God’s promises. But they also saw some obstacles – the local giants and they felt inferior and forgot their calling and the God who brought them through all their difficult times. Their focus was on the giants and they were looking for a leader to guide them back! They were so discouraged and had so much of self-pity and cried and wept. This hurt God’s heart because He wanted them to enter into the Promised Land and now the Israelites desired to turn back and go back. If we shrink back, God’s heart will have no pleasure in us. We shouldn’t be in that group which desires to go back forgetting everything that God has done through all these years. In verse 39 we are asked to take heed that we are not in the group that decided to go back. We also read that those who shrink back are actually shrinking back to destruction. God is looking for people for people who will trust Him without reservation. In 2 Chronicles 16:9 we read, “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.” God is seeking to reveal His strength on behalf of such people. Even when circumstances are dim and heard, seek to trust God completely.
In James 5:7,8 we read, “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.” We see here the example of a farmer who waits patiently and works hard while he waits. He may have to wait a few months to see the fruit of His labor. We are encouraged to strengthen our hearts as we wait for the coming of the Lord. Don’t allow your heart to be melted as it happened to the Israelites when they saw obstacles. In verse 10 we read, “As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.” The Bible is full of examples of God’s people who endured through God allowed sufferings with expected outcomes. God doesn’t allow His people to suffer at random. He has a purpose for it. Gold is not put into the furnace casually or carelessly. It is done with a purpose to remove all the dirt. Similar is the way that God allows difficulties in our lives. That is why we can take courage and endure. There will be an outcome as a result of the suffering. In verse 11 we read that those who endure are blessed. In Job’s life there were unspeakable difficult days but we see the outcome of God’s dealing in His life. Through all difficulty we will see God’s compassion and mercy. He will bring out something good in our life even through the difficulties. We may not understand everything but we know that it is part of God’s dealing in my life and we are sure that there will be a good that comes out of it.
In our lives, we may have a lot of external and internal pressures and voices of discouragement in our lives. We may know that we are doing God’s will but these discouraging voices try to pull us down. In Nehemiah 4 we read that Nehemiah came to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. In verse 1 we read, “Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews.” When we try to do God’s will in our lives, there may be such Sanballats. They try to put us down and try to persuade us to stop the work which we have started. In verse 2 and 3 we read, “He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?” Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him and he said, “Even what they are building—if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!”” These were voices of despise and mocking. Even when we try to do God’s work there can be mocking voices trying to despise and discourage us and trying to persuade us to give up. But we see that Nehemiah knew the work of God and he prayed and wasn’t distracted by the discouraging voices of his enemies. He focused of the work of God and faithfully endured.
May God help us to endure in our races looking unto Jesus.
