Fix Your Eyes on Jesus! : RUN! It's GO Time!

Have you ever run in a race? Well, there’s a letter in the Bible that was written to all the children of Abraham, the Hebrews, that talks about how our life with God is like a race. Everyone is born with the opportunity to have a LIFE with God, but there are quitters and there are winners. Do you want to know what makes a winner?

The Hebrews’ writer tells us—ABANDONMENT. You gotta believe, by Faith, that God is who He says He is and can DO what He says He can do. And then you gotta give Him everything you’ve got!

But if you’ve ever run a race, you know there is always a point when you get tired and it hurts to keep going. Well, the Hebrews’ writer talked about what it takes to be a winner, as well as about the quitters.

About the quitters, it’s written...

“Some people can’t be brought back again to a changed life. They were once in God’s light, and tasted heaven’s gift, and shared in the Holy Spirit. They tasted how good God’s Word is and the miracles of the coming age. But then, they turned away from the Anointed and are nailing the Son of God to a cross all over again and are making Him look bad in front of others.

If someone purposefully decides to go on sinning after learning the truth, there is nothing but fear and fire for them. Anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was punished with no mercy.

How much worse a punishment do you think someone deserves if they disrespect the Son of God, by stomping on the blood that made them holy as if it were nothing special? God said he will do the punishing.”

(Remember, children, you never have to be one of those quitters!)

And here’s what’s written about the Winners:

“But in your case, dear friends, we are convinced of better things for you relating to salvation. God is not unjust. He remembers your work and the love you have shown by continually serving His Family. We passionately want each of you to keep going with that same eagerness all the way until the end of the race. We don’t want you getting sluggish or slowing down, but we want you to be imitators of those who, through faith, and pressing through to the end, get God’s promises.

Remember those earlier days after you said “Yes” to God’s light, when you patiently held strong through a great battle of suffering and hard things.

Sometimes you were publicly insulted and persecuted; at other times you stood side by side with those who were treated badly. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted it when people took away your stuff, because you knew that you yourselves had better, lasting things.

Now, keep going strong, and stand steady doing the will of God, and you will receive what He has promised. “The One who is coming will come. And My righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”

But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but we belong to those who have faith and are saved.

Faith is being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we don’t see it. Faith is the reason great people who lived in the past were commended by God. By faith we understand that the whole world was made by God’s command. What we see was made by something we can’t see.

By faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain.

By faith, Enoch was taken to heaven. Poof!

Without faith, no one can please God. Anyone who comes to God must believe that He is real and that He rewards those who truly look for Him with care and without giving up.

By faith, Noah heard God’s warnings about things he couldn’t yet see. He obeyed God and built a large boat to save his family. By his faith, Noah showed that the world was wrong, and he became one of those who are made right with God through faith.

By faith, Abraham obeyed God’s call to go to another place God promised to give him. He left his own country, not knowing where he was to go. He lived like a foreigner in the country God promised to give him. He lived in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who had received that same promise from God. Abraham was waiting for the city that has real foundations—the city planned and built by God.

By faith, Abraham was able to become a father (even though he and Sarah were both too old), because he trusted God to do what he had promised. This man was so old he was almost dead, but from him came as many descendants as there are stars in the sky.

All these great people died in faith. They didn’t get all the things that God promised His people, but they saw them coming far in the future and were happy about it. They said they were like visitors and strangers on earth. People who say that show they are looking for a country that will be their Home. If they had been thinking about the country they had left, they could have gone back. But they were waiting for a better country—a heavenly country. So God is not ashamed to be called their God, because He has prepared a city for them.

By faith, Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice.

By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each one of Joseph’s sons. Then he worshiped as he leaned on the top of his walking stick.

By faith, Joseph, while he was dying, spoke about the Israelites leaving Egypt.

By faith, Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born. They saw that Moses was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s order.

By faith, Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of the king of Egypt’s daughter. He chose to suffer with God’s people instead of enjoying sin for a short time. He thought it was better to suffer for Christ than to have all the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking for God’s reward. Moses continued strong as if he could see the God that no one can see. It was by faith that Moses prepared the Passover and spread the blood over the doors.

By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as if it were dry land. But when the Egyptians tried it, they didn’t make it.

By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after the people had marched around them. By faith, Rahab, the sinner, welcomed the spies and was not killed with those who refused to obey God.

And I don’t have time to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets.

By FAITH—that enduring, never-giving-up trust in God and in His promises—these people subdued kingdoms, gave out justice, received blessings, closed the mouths of lions, put out fires, escaped the danger of swords, out of weakness, they were made strong; they became mighty in battle, and made their enemies run away in fear!

Some were raised from the dead; Others were tortured, refusing to be released (they wouldn’t take an easier path), so that they would be resurrected to a better life!

Some were laughed at and beaten. Others were put in chains and thrown into prison. They were stoned to death and killed with swords. They were poor, abused, and treated badly. The world was not good enough for them! They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and holes in the ground.

All these people—although their faith was beautiful to God—didn’t get to experience the fulfillment of all of God’s awesome promises in their lifetimes. Why? Because God had US in mind. And He had something better planned for us, so that only together with us would they be made complete.

Soooooo, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses (that’s all those Faith people who have run the race before us), let’s keep running the race set out in front of us. Let’s get rid of every extra weight holding us down and the sin that hangs on to us. Let’s keep our eyes glued on Jesus—the first runner and the completer of our faith. For the joy set in front of Him, He endured the cross, thinking nothing of its shame, and now He has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

Think of HIM! Think of all He went through, so that you may not grow tiiired and become a quitter. In your struggle against sin, you’re not even bleeding yet. Take on the suffering as discipline. The Lord disciplines the child He loves, so don’t dislike it or give up when He corrects you. Discipline isn’t fun, but it produces peace and righteousness for those who learn by it. So, lift up your droopy hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet. Let what is lame be healed.”

So that is what the person who wrote the letter to the Hebrews had to say about those people of long ago, to those people long ago. But what about you? Are you getting on your running shoes as you start learning God’s language and ways, so that you can be a winner with God? I hope so.

And did you know that the winners who have gone before us are watching your race and cheering you on? (While the Bible doesn’t say exactly what the Great Cloud of Witnesses is seeing and hearing of our journey... but a “witness” is someone who is seeing or hearing SOMETHING. 🙂 .)

So get ready. Fix your eyes on Jesus, and when it’s Go Time, you GO! GO! GO! RUN your race, all the way to the end—right into His arms!