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Endurance (Hebrews 12)

This article was written by Doug Busby for The Hammer Magazine.
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, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Heb. 12:1-3)
The hardest element in the Christian life, as I see it, is endurance. By that I don’t mean trying to keep myself sure to the end. If that were the case, I would have given up long ago. But there is a psychology to the Christian life that is important. There is a perspective, an outlook, that is essential for winning the one contest that we as Christians must win. In certain ways, this race is like an athletic contest, but in one important way it is totally different. The real challenge of this earthly life is its indefinite length.

Put it like this: How many of you jog for exercise? Before you start, you know the approximate distance you want to run, don’t you? Suppose you didn’t know. I don’t mean that you are unsure you can make your goal of two miles or five miles or whatever. Suppose you really didn’t know when you could stop. How would you pace yourself? What would keep you from giving up?

We face this dilemma as Christians. If we knew our race would last just a day, we could run past temptations. Our goal would be close; it would be in sight. If we knew our race would only last a week, or perhaps a month…and maybe that’s the case. Your life could be over in a few days or weeks. But you don’t know. From the human perspective we see endless days, endless months, endless years. The goal evaporates, and Christians become disoriented.

A number of the Hebrews were in this very situation. They had come quite a distance and had overcome hurdles that make ours look small in comparison. They were publicly insulted and persecuted, and some had their property seized ([Hebrews] 10:32-34). But these things happened in the ‘earlier days.’ Since then, time had passed and weariness had become the experience of some. Their struggle with sin had become open-ended.

The author of Hebrews tells them to lay aside the weights that weary them, and this is valid instruction for Christians today. We tire because we carry too much, and most of the burden is in the realm of perceived needs. The media tells us that we need this and that, and we are easily distracted. How much of what you have is really directed toward serving the Lord Jesus in a better way?

How much wasted motion we have in our Christian lives! In swimming, you are taught to cut the water at an angle, because the first few degrees not only are wasted, they work against you. In jogging, extra weight makes you work harder to reach your goal. Are you kept from making strides in your Christian life because of resistance and extra weight?

Some time ago, a woman who said she was a Christian came to see me about her severe depression. Her schedule was filled with things which in themselves weren’t wrong—classes, exercise, etc.—but which gave her no time for Christ. She was too busy. Between the internet, TV, your sports, work, classes, family, etc. is there really time for pressing on, for making strides in your Christian life, for doing the kinds of things you know the Lord would have you do? What vision do you have for what the Lord can do in your community? In the lives of your friends? Your children? Other children? Are you distracted and weighed down?

From time to time, God’s people become exhausted by their own sin. Sin makes the Christian life weary; it takes our eyes off the goal. Sins, like the desire for worldly security, wealth, and power hinder us. World-centered pleasures—whether sex, stripped of its holy meaning, or drugs, used to acquire chemically what we can’t get righteously (joy, peace, increased sensitivity)—make us weary.

God wants us to leave these behind and run. He wants us to stretch our spiritual legs and run for His glory as one people who will receive the award. s indefinite in time as our lives might be, the goal compensates for everything.

We are to fix our spiritual eyes on Jesus. He is our goal. He called forth our faith in the beginning, and He will perfect it in the end. Remove Jesus from Christianity, and you have no goal. With no goal, there is no race.

I have a personal Goal who loves me. He endured the Cross, scorning its shame, in order to be at the end of the race waiting for me. He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, which is home. Living in the world and according to the world—trying to hold onto time, trying to wring pleasure out of something which time will destroy—is like trying to hold water in a sieve. The end of such a life is a tragic end. But at the end of my life as a Christian is the One who died to put me in the race, who gives me strength to run the race, and who counted the joy of pleasing the Father by redeeming me as a joy worth His awful death.

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