Okay... you’re in the race for your life, your eternal life. The race is a marathon, run along a narrow, cramped and winding road where you’re going to encounter all manner of challenges that try to knock you off course and even out of the race. What do you do to ensure you have a fighting chance to finish well?
Long distance runners know one thing about the challenges before them, mental focus is critically important. Can’t win... can’t even finish a marathon without a sharp–focused–positive mental attitude.
If you focus on how far you have to go, or on what you feel in certain muscles, or become fixated on the people who are passing you, you’ll begin to feel weaker and your mind begins to manufacture more and more compelling reasons why you should just quit the race.
In the same way, if you want to run the race God has set before you, you need the right mental focus—as Hebrews 12:1b,2a says... “Fixing our eyes” is figurative—we can’t physically see Jesus, and this limitation doesn’t mean forming a mental picture of Jesus’ face in our minds. It means focusing our mental attention away from distractions and onto Jesus in two practical ways.
FIRST, focus your attention on Jesus as your Example. In his role as the “Author” of our faith he is also the “pioneer.” The word “author”, in Greek archegos, can also be translated as “pioneer.” Jesus is the Pioneer of your faith in the sense that he has already run with endurance the race God set before him. He is the ultimate “veteran runner.” He is not asking you to do something that he has not already done. His command to run your race has genuine moral authority, not just because he is the Lord, but because he has already done what he is asking you to do. In fact, his race was more difficult than ours will ever be as noted in Hebrews 12:2b-4. We can draw real strength from thinking about what Jesus went through in the final laps of his race.
Are you tempted to give up because you’re weary? Think about what Jesus had to endure. You no doubt have a pretty good idea of the physical agony Jesus experienced... of being beaten by Roman guards while blindfolded, of being scourged, and finally being crucified and suffocating to death. He could have escaped this at any time ( Matthew 26:53,54) but he willingly endured all of these things to fulfill God’s plan of Redemption so we could have the opportunity to be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with God.
Are you tempted to give up because of self-pity? Think about the shame and humiliation Jesus endured in being stripped naked and mocked on the cross. Have you shed even one drop of literal blood in your race for the cause of Christ? Probably not. Jesus could have ended his agony at any time, but he willingly endured it because he believed that the joy of eternity in God’s Kingdom with those he rescued would more than compensate for his brief humiliation.
You might be thinking, “Yes, but Jesus was God—I am just a human.” That’s true, however the Bible tells us that Jesus was also human, and he ran His race as a human being (Hebrews 2:14,17). Even though he was God and could have used his divine prerogatives at any time to escape or mitigate the ordeal of the Cross, he refused to do this, in part, so that he could be our example... our pioneer.
SECOND, focus your attention on Jesus as your Provider. “Perfecter” (teleiotes) means “the one who brings it to completion.” Jesus is not only the Author who ran the race before you did, he is also the Perfecter in the sense that he is personally with you to provide you with everything you need to finish your race.
When the resurrected Jesus (after completing his race) gave his disciples (and us) the command to run our race (read Matthew 28:19), he also gave us this wonderful promise (read Matthew 28:19,20 – “I am with you always”. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is personally accessible every step of the race to guide you so you stay on his course for mapped out for you. He’s with us to encourage us through the obstacles, and to empower us to keep going... to cross the finish line.
You don’t need to be some big strong macho dude in order to run this race. In fact, those who try to run the race by their own strength either burn out quickly or scale the race down to one that is humanly runnable. Your weakness and frailty is not a problem, in fact, it can be your very best ally if you let it remind you to depend on Jesus to empower you to the finish (read 2 Corinthians 12:9 and Isaiah 40:28-31).
How do you depend on Jesus to provide for you? The main way is through ongoing prayer. Regular times of prayer alone and with other runners, and spontaneously in situational prayers alone and with other runners. You need both “alone” time and you need “to be with others” who are facing the same challenges in their personal race for eternity. During these prayer times... pour your heart out to God about your weaknesses and fears, thank him by faith for his great power and love and faithfulness and then ask him for the help you need for the next part of your race.
NEXT TIME: Listening to THE COACH and TRAINER!
