Bible Reading: Heb. 12: 1 - 17
Topic: Looking Unto Jesus
Today's passage opens with
a great incentive for us to persevere in the Christian Race -- those who have
successfully run their own race and are now spectators cheering us onto the
finish line.
We like them can only run
this race successfully by looking onto Jesus Who is both the Author and
Finisher of our faith. He too set us an example of perseverance through great
suffering to glory.
The writer goes on to warn
us about sin which if we persist in it will result in chastening from the
Father.
It is comforting to know
that God will not allow His Children to live carelessly. If we are really and
truly born again, He will discipline us in order to restore us to faith.
Our responsibility
therefore is to accept His discipline with gratitude because though "no
chastening seems to be joyful for the present but painful, nevertheless
afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been
trained by it." (Heb. 12: 11)
God's intention is to work
in us through the Spirit in order to conform us to the Image of Christ (Rom. 8:
29) and if chastening is what He needs to achieve it, He will administer it in
love.
We must therefore strive
to lay aside very weight of sin that so easily besets us and run our Christian
race with diligence looking to Jesus for help.
"Moreover, we also owe
it to other fellow travelers to support them in their own spiritual race and as
the writer admonishes, .. "strengthen the hands which hang down and the
feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not
be dislocated but rather be healed" (Heb. 12: 12 - 13)
Prayer:
Father help me to gladly
accept Your discipline and use that experience to help others who may be
struggling in their own spiritual journey in Jesus' Name, Amen
Memory verse: Heb. 12: 14
"Follow peace with
all men and holiness without which no man can see the Lord."
(The Daily Devotional Guide of the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion)
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