1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 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. Hebrews12:1
If it were easy, it would not be called perseverance!
When trouble comes and we need to "hang in there" and "stick it out" and "keep going" we struggle to persevere. The writer to the Hebrews gives two main reasons:
- we lack clarity and vision on the race
- we are encumbered or entangled as we try to run.
Today we'll talk about clarity...
When he refers to the "great cloud of witnesses", the author is pointing back to ch.11 where he has listed some of the well-known Biblical characters like Abraham, Moses, David and the prophets of old. He has recounted their perseverance and God's faithfulness. In effect he is saying: "We have a wonderfully rich heritage of faith - we have seen how God answered their prayers and delivered them. The baton is in our hands. We must run with it.
How did you come to faith? Who passed faith on to you? Think about the 2000 years of church history that brings you to this place where the message came through generations and generations of fallible but faithful people just to get to you. Who brought you to Christ? And who brought them to Christ? And who brought them?? God has guided and managed HIS-story and His people so that you could be in the race - so why lose heart?
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
