God and you

Day 180

'Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honour beside God's throne.'

Hebrews 12:1-2

Let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. I'm not sure whether it's the same for you, you might be reading this later, but as I write the 2016 Olympics are going on in Rio de Janeiro. I am not a sporty person, lets make that clear, but I did a bit of research and the longest race is the marathon, which is 42.195 kilometres in length. That's a lot. To run that race you need a huge amount of stamina and endurance. The winner of the women's marathon this year, Jemima Jelagat Sumgong, took 2:24:04 to finish it. That seems almost impossible - I would probably drop out after 10 minutes!

And the reason I'm bringing this up is that sometimes in life it feels like you are running a 42.195 kilometre marathon. And it feels like things are weighing you down. All that stuff, fear, worry, sin, anger, hurt, envy, selfishness, all of that is weighing you down. Maybe you've got to that 2 hour point and you just feel like you can't go on. You feel like collapsing on the floor and giving up.

But this passage says to run the race with endurance. What's more, like a personal trainer, it tells you how to do this. We need to strip off all that stuff that slows us down, and know that Jesus is our salvation from all that. We have got to keep our eyes on Jesus, who is the ultimate champion. Jesus isn't running way ahead of us. Jesus is running beside us. Jesus is who will guide us. He will never let us down. We need to have that faith that we can reach the end, and that Jesus will help us. And when we get to that last kilometre stretch, we can run with joy and hope, knowing that God's promise is true, and we are saved. We are free to rest for eternity in his house.

Prayer

Dear Lord,

Thank you that you are my guide, my salvation, my trainer, my leader. Lord, please help me when life gets tough. help me to strip off all that stuff that weighs me down and keep on running with my eyes on you Lord. Give me the faith to always believe that I have that life for eternity with you.

Amen