Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)
“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.”
I am told that elite marathon runners will train with additional weights so that when the day of competition comes, and the weights come off, the runner feels as light as a feather. Now if you know me, you know I will never compete in a marathon, and I certainly won’t be training for a marathon with a weight belt! But nevertheless the picture is a helpful one.
You see as we go through life we accumulate spiritual weights which hold us down. These are the spiritual things that weigh us down. These could include distractions which keep us from focusing on God, from reading our Bibles, from our prayer lives or from worshipping God with his people at a church gathering. Sometimes these weights include good things like jobs and friendships, but they become weights when they hinder us from giving our all to God. Sin on the other hand don’t just hinder us, it actively holds us back, clinging to us with its deadly fingers. Whenever we chose to follow our own path, instead of the path God laid out for us in scripture, we are actively allowing ourselves to become entrapped by our sin.
Now whether our hinderances are distractions or sins, the author of Hebrews gives the same cure. Throw these things off, lay them aside, so you can run the spiritual race unencumbered by these spiritual weights.
So how do we throw off these weights? Well the author of Hebrews gives us two examples to follow. Firstly we are to look back to this great cloud of witnesses, these heroes of faith that chapter 11 focused on. We are right to look back to them and be inspired by their example. Sometimes their stories were testimonies of success, and as we saw yesterday, often their stories were testimonies of earthly failure. But in every case these heroes of the faith clung to their belief in God’s promises, whether their circumstances looked like success or failure. One way we can throw off our spiritual weights is to look back to these heroes and to be inspired by their example.
The other way is to look to Jesus, who is the author and perfector of our faith. You see the author of Hebrews realises that even these other heroes of faith were still flawed and that none of them could achieve the perfect standard that Jesus set for us. So as good as those heroes were, they too just point us to Jesus.
So what did Jesus do? He looked through the suffering of the cross, to the joy set before him. He knew that when he had suffered and when he came through the suffering, that he would go on to sit at God’s right hand. His suffering was temporary, it was real yes, but it was temporary. Compared to the eternal joy of being with God, any earthly suffering was endurable.
This is why we can endure suffering today too. Like the people the book of Hebrews was written to, we too can suffer, knowing that our suffering is temporary. If we follow in Jesus’ footsteps, keeping the faith, all our suffering too will pass. And then one day we will enter into the joy set before us too, reunited with God the Father.
Are you looking forward to that day?
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, please help keep our eyes on you as we go through life. Lord this world is filled with suffering, but you suffered far more than we ever will. You endured by keeping your eyes on the joy set before you. As we suffer help us see the joy of being with you. Amen.
Spiritual Challenge:
Consider what hinders you spiritually today? What are the spiritual weights that are keeping you down? Commit to throwing these off in order to follow Jesus.
Throwing Off Spiritual Weights