Thoughts From Hebrews 12:1 – An Endurance Race

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin which so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Continuing down our theme of looking at the action statement coming from our wall of faith of Hebrews 11.  So far, we have looked at the encumbrances we all face as Christians which block our effectiveness for the kingdom.  Last week, we looked at the sin which can so easily entangle us.  Both of these involve removing hindrances to our effectiveness.  The next three blog posts involve the positive things we must do to be effective for the kingdom. 

Consider if we only removed the negative things that block us, we could still not be effective for the kingdom because we would not be active.  God wants us to be active.  Inactivity is as much a sin as the wrong activity.  We must run.  I do not like to run – I do it because I have to to stay in shape.  My joints creak and I will do anything to not do it.  I never got that runners high that others refer to.  My daughter ran the Chicago Marathon a few years back and while I admired her fortitude to do it, I have no personal desire to train for one.  However, I do run because it is a matter of being proactive in my desire for physical fitness.  However, when I run, I never regret it after I am done. 

It is a matter of perseverance, a matter of duty to my body.  Other translations state it as a matter of endurance.  It is a 10k race, not a sprint.  That means pacing oneself.  I remember watching my cousin when he was in 6th grade running a mile race.  He sprinted out to an early lead only to fizzle out and finish back from the leaders.  My stepfather taught me to start real slow in my running and work my way up to a faster pace.  We must conduct our Christian race by pacing our walk – doing the right things and doing them for a long period of time.  I just learned from a Larry Burkett conference I was listening to about the concept of 9:59 which means to spend at least 9 minutes and 59 seconds in the word every day.  Not an hour, not even a half-hour but a minimum of just under 10 minutes every day.  Do it consistently, every day.  I now spend time every day, even if just a few minutes meditating on and memorizing Scripture.  I find as I do this, the Spirit brings to mind the scripture at even the oddest times.  Finally, the discipline of praying every day.  I am still working on that one, but I am finally learning what it means to literally “pray without ceasing” as Paul teaches us.

So let us start our training to run with endurance.  Next week – the learning about the race God has set before us.