Gathering The Strength to Endure

God's Power To Re-Create Us and Empower Us Anew!

Hebrews 12:1&2 are well known passages of scripture. They are so well know that it is hard to imagine that most church-going folk, haven’t heard it preached in every way imaginable. Yet, there is great value in re-visiting these well known and highly trafficked passages of scripture from the perspective of connecting the dots in the scripture to glimpse the larger picture of what God is teaching to His people. He says through the writer of Hebrews,

“Therefore since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes of Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”

The simply profound truth of this passage of scripture could easily be missed if we don’t take a slow walk through it. As stated in the sermon the first clause of the passage is a proof statement. God is stating that we can conclude, based upon the abundance of evidence that was just presented in chapter 11 that the life of faith has value and is worthy of our greatest effort. God draws a conclusion for us and says that we have an over abundance of proof that trusting Him pays off, and that in light of that truth we can let go of the things that we cling to.

The fear that moving into the unknown creates in us should be lessened or completely negated by the fact that we have so many witnesses who speak to us throughout the balance of scripture. If we, but look at them we will be inspired to strip off many, if not all of the weights that we carry around. Abraham overcame his dependency on the inheritance he would receive from his father to go to a land he’d never known. Joseph released his brothers from guilt and freed himself from the bitterness of their abuse to rise to the position of prominence and saw his life as the work of God’s hand.

The Word of God is replete with example after example of how God responds to our faith in Him. As we are moved by the witnesses who are literally exhorting us to move forward, we are also incited to run with “patience (KJV)/endurance (NLT)”the race that is set before us. It is this patience/endurance that is exciting to consider. We must look to Galatians 5:22 for a hint at the power that is present here. Paul tells us in Galatians 5:22

“But the Fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness. Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control against such things there is no law.”

How wonderful to note that Trusting God produces Fruit of the Spirit in the life of disciple. The Fruit of Patience is the Attitude of Faith that keeps us moving against the tide of failure and disappointment as well as the current of success and blessing. It is the voice of the Holy Spirit that says to us in the midst of disappointment; get up and do it once more. It is the voice of God that says at the peak of excitement and triumph, celebrate, but then come down off the mountain and continue working.

Patience is a function of the “Fruit of Peace” or “Shalom”. If you recall, the Hebrew word Shalom means “to arrive safe”. Peace is the confidence in God that He will deliver you and me safe to the appointed promises. The confidence that is born out of The Fruit of Peace produces the Attitude of Faith that the scriptures call Patience/Endurance/Longsuffering.

God tells us in Hebrews 12:1&2 that we have evidence that God delivered a huge cloud of witnesses to Glory and because of that evidence we are exhorted and inspired to move constantly in the direction of God’s blessing. Our Faith in God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the magnetic force that draws us with patience through the race that God has set before us. We can remain patient because we are assured of the outcome by the evidence of the witnesses who ran ahead of us.

God tells us,

“We do this by keeping our eyes of Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”

It is our focus on Jesus that creates the patience that we need to move forward toward the finish line. This is the substance of our Hope that Jesus has cleared the path from Life to Life.