Sunday, July 27, 2014 - Hebrews 12:1-2

[Tek7]

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.

Hebrews 12:1-2, HCSB

NOTE: I was out of town last Sunday and didn't bring my laptop with me. I apologize for not thinking ahead and asking some else to cover that day or writing the VotD post ahead of time.

What encouragement we can take from this passage!

I can only speak for myself, but I know in my own Christian experience, there are times when I wonder if I will remain a faithful servant to the end. I do so much less than Christ has made me able to do that it's so very easy to grow despondent and doubt that I will be able to say, like Paul, that I have fought the good fight and ran the race.

Yet the same God that empowered Paul to do great things has called me to serve Him. My own abilities are irrelevant. They may even be hindrances, for God showed His power most often through Paul's weaknesses rather than his strengths.

And while we submit our wills to God, we also trust the Lord that He will begin the work of inward change He started in us the day we repented of our sins and submitted our lives to Him.

There are seasons in the Christian life, ebb and flow, wax and wane. Yet the God that redeems us, sustains us, and one day will deliver us from this life, where we struggle with temptation and sin every day, to a direct communion with Him that will last forever--this same God works in us day by day to make us a little more like Christ as we push ever onward toward eternity.