Skip to content

Run, Run, As Fast As You Can

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Rom. 12:1-2

Many different figures of speech are used in the New Testament to describe aspects of the Christian life.  1 Corinthians 9:26, Galatians 5, and Philippians 2 all present the Christian life as a run.  The text of Hebrews 12 also addresses the life of a follower of Christ with the analogy of running.  If you look at verses 1-2 of chapter 12, you will see that the verb or the command from the author is to “run with endurance the race set before you.”  So in this text, I urge you to consider three truths that encourage us as believers to run as fast as we can!

As we run this race, the first thing we can see from this text is that we can run with encouragement from those who have run before us.  The author says that since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us run….   This is clearly a reference to the previous chapter, chapter 11, which recounts for us the faithful saints of old who faithfully ran and completed their race.  What an encouragement for us to have living, breathing examples of people who were found faithful!

Secondly, as we run this race, we must get rid of what slows us down.  If you are going to run you have to be ready, you have to be in shape, and if you want to make it to the finish line, then you must get rid of everything that is weighing you down.  People that run marathons and long distances are not out there dressed the same way as if they were going to be snow skiing.  The author of this text exhorts us to “lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.”  May our lives be characterized by confession of sin and a commitment to repent and turn from the sin that clings so closely. 

Finally, we see that to run this race we can look to Jesus as our ultimate example.  The author says that Jesus is the one we look to because “for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  What a great Savior we have.  One who has lived as we live and suffered as we suffer.  Jesus defeated death and the grave so that we, too, could endure the trials of this life!

I hope you take time this week to remember the saints who have gone before you as a way to encourage you in whatever life is throwing at you this week.  I pray that you seek to confess and repent of any sin that is weighing you down, and always look to Christ as your ultimate example for how to run this race as fast as you can!

Blessings,

Pastor Jeff         

Share this post

Related posts

FOCUSED

One of the casualties of aging to which I find myself a victim is the dimming of the eyes.  Ecclesiastes 12 counsels the young person to remember God, their Creator, in their youth before the aging process takes over and various faculties, as listed in verses 1-7, are diminished.

Clear eyesight when we are young may be something we take for granted. However, as we age the realization that our vision is not as sharp as it once was takes hold. “Readers” become standard fare for all intricate tasks. Our once keen laser sharp focus is now blurry and in need of help to restore its youthfulness. That restoration is found through glasses or some sort of rejuvenating surgery. Especially in the early stages of this degenerative eye problem we may be able to fake it and get by, but eventually we must relent and do something to correct the problem.

There is a parallel between physical and spiritual vision. “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” was written in the early 20th century. The hymn writer, Helen Lemmel, was strongly influenced by the artist and later little-known missionary, Lilias Trotter. Miss Trotter started off as an aspiring artist but early on felt a call from God to reach the lost. She began her ministry by rescuing prostitutes from the streets of London. Later she went to Africa, without missionary funding, and served for over forty years. While there she penned a poem that would greatly influence the writing of the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”  The poem was entitled “Focused: A Story and Song.” 

The poem centers around focusing one’s attentions fully and completely upon God. She writes that Satan knows that if a person uses all their powers of concentration on being led by God’s Spirit, they will have a great intensity and impact upon those to whom they are called to minister. Lilias Trotter, writing in a more formal use of the English language than we are accustomed, shares some timeless insights which could very easily have been written today but with a different accent. She writes: “Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once—art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the ‘good’ hiding the ‘best’ even more effectually than it could be hidden downright frivolity with its smothered heartache at its own emptiness.”

The “good” hiding the “best” leads us to emptiness.  Could this be true of us today especially as American Christians? Have we sought the “good” while missing the “best”? The chorus of the hymn, which we will be singing in worship this Sunday, says it best.

                Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face,                                                                                                                                        And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Keith Pate

God Leads Us

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge…

God is Enough

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.…