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Run the Race with Patience

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 

Hebrews 12:1 KJV (emphasis added)

            This passage has been on my heart for the past week or so.  I know many of you can relate when God is trying to teach you something and it sits on your heart for a good bit of time, Hopefully until the lesson is learned and then beyond that of course.  I would venture a guess that most of us have heard the above passage many times.  We all probably know it by heart, or think we do.  I thought I did until the Lord began to open my eyes to a couple of things in it.  I’d like to share some of the things that stood out and hopefully you can be blessed as I was and am. 

            The first thing I’d like to point out is the mention of a ‘race’.  The writer of Hebrews clearly states that there is a race.  Repentance at the cross of Jesus gives us our running shoes.  When we first come to Jesus we are given what we need to begin the race. 

            As believers who desire relationship with Father we are expected to run the race.  Of course we have the right to say no and sadly there are many who do.  The idea of a race can be overwhelming for some and they become content to just ‘putter’ around the starting line and never set out.  It’s not hard to understand that attitude when you think about it.  Races are not easy.  They make us sweaty, smelly and filthy.  They can cause pain and injury.  They can be exhausting.  But there is a price to pay as spiritual life for these people becomes stagnant and dead as the road to growth and maturity is never begun. 

           The next thing that stood out is the lack of competition in the race.  There’s no platform at the end for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place to stand on.  As long as we finish the race we win.  The impact of this is that is should remove all competition.  We are not in competition with each other but yet everywhere believers are stepping on each other, betraying each other and jockeying for the best position possible. 

          Christians not only do this to other believers but really to anyone standing in their way.  This isn’t just in the “world” it’s in the churches.  There is a huge price to pay for this attitude and lifestyle because when we reach the “goal”, as we think it is, we are met my God telling us we have to go back to the beginning and He erases everything we thought we were doing for Him by stepping all over others.

          The last thing I’d like to mention is running the race with……perseverance right?  Actually the word is “patience”.  We are to run the race with “patience.”  Perseverance is not part of the definition of the Greek word used here.  I believe we have misunderstood what the writer was trying to say here.  To use perseverance instead of patience here shifts the understanding dramatically.  I’m not saying that we don’t need perseverance in this race because we most certainly do.  I’m just saying I think a different point was trying to be made here.  Earlier in the verse the writer addresses the “perseverance” point when he writes “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us”.  It’s also no mystery that we will encounter trials and tribulations on our journey.  That point has been made many times in the bible (John 16:33, James 1:12, Romans 12:12, 1^st Cor 10:13, Rom 5:3 and many more) and we are encouraged to persevere through them. 

          But how do we run a race with patience?  What if we entered a race but nobody told us where to go?  What if nobody gave us directions?  We can’t have a race without some sort of finish line.  What would happen if we started the race without knowing where we were supposed to go?  Or maybe we start the race because we got directions from someone other than the one who laid the race out.  Well, we would run in the direction we think is right or we would follow the directions we got from someone else.  In both cases we would wind up lost, tired and very frustrated. 

         Are there people who run ahead without direction?  Absolutely.  It happens all of the time to people who have allowed their zeal to drown out their patience.  Zeal is a great thing unless it’s making us deaf to direction. 

So we have two commands here; Run the race but wait patiently for direction before we start.  It’s impossible to accidently stumble upon the finish line God sets for each leg of our journey.  We must wait for Him to direct us and we must get our feet out of the mud and set out.  Not running the race at all will get us just as lost, tired and frustrated as those of us who start running without waiting for direction. 

         The interesting thing is that this “running and waiting” thing plays out many times in our journey because the race is made up of many ‘legs’ and God only gives us enough direction to complete one ‘leg’ at a time.  We must be continually making the choice to run, with the patience to wait for direction.  Remember also that the only way to grow in patience is to wait longer than we think we can or should.  We need to allow God to destroy our beliefs of how much patience is enough patience.   

         We should understand that sometimes running the race means just being still.  God can really mature our hearts when we resist the urge to fill our lives with activities just because we have nothing else going on.  Sometimes God wants to teach us patience by taking us into seasons of inactivity and rest.  Blessings,

Jesse Birkey         

Jesse and Kara Birkey
Reflect Ministry
www.reflectministry.com
jbirkey@reflectministry.com
813-405-7952

"God does not expose our needs in theory, but in relationship with others."

Posted via email from jessebirkey's posterous

Not Judgmental, But Prayer-mental

Not Judgmental, But Prayer-mental

 
Mercy, Not Wrath by Frangipane

The church is created not to fulfill God's wrath, but to complete His mercy. Remember, we are called to be a "house of prayer for all…nations." Consider passionately this phrase: "prayer for." Jesus taught His disciples to "pray for" those who would persecute or mistreat them (Matt.5 44). When Job "prayed for" his friends, God fully restored him (Job 42:10). We are to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (Ps. 122:6), and "pray for" each other so that we may be healed (James 5:16).
According to the Word of God, the Lord "desires all men to be saved" (1 Tim. 2:4). Therefore, Paul urged "that entreaties and prayers…be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority" (vv. 1-2). You see, the call is to pray for people.
"But," you argue, "my country (or city) is a modern manifestation of ancient Babylon."
I don't think so. But even if it were, when the Lord exiled Israel to Babylon, He didn't order His people to judge and condemn their new cities. Rather, He said, "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you…and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare" (Jer. 29:7).
Time after time, the scriptural command is to pray for, not against; to pray mercifully, not vindictively. God's call is for prayer moved by compassion, not condemnation. Indeed, at its very essence, the nature of intercession is to appeal to God for forgiveness and redemption to come to sinful people.
We have studied what is wrong with our society and can prove, with charts and surveys, the trends of sin, yet we have failed to appreciate the influence of the intercessions of Christ. We consider ourselves experts on the nature and cause of sin, but deny the nature and cause of Christ, which is redemption. Friends, being informed by the news media is in no way the same thing as being transformed into the nature of the Savior.
The media sees what is wrong with the world and exposes it; Christ saw what was wrong and died for it. If one could gaze into the image being created within the heart of the church, one would find that it would be more the cynical attitude of the news media than the redemptive attitude of our Shepherd. Righteousness must ascend higher than ascribing to the moral views of our political party; we are called to the standards of God.

Study Isaiah 53. It reveals in wondrous detail the Savior's nature: Christ numbered Himself with the sinners (v. 12). He interceded for the transgressors (v. 12). He is "with us" (Matt. 1:23) and "for us" (Rom. 8:31), even when He is speaking to us of our iniquity.
But the world sees a church with rocks in its hands, looking for adulterers and sinners. We have become the "church of the angry Christians." In the drama that is unfolding in the world today, we have not usually been playing the role of Christ, but more often the part of the Pharisees. Let us drop the rocks from our hands, then lift our hands, without wrath, in prayer to God (1 Tim. 2:8).
"Prayer-Mental," Not Judgmental
God does not want us to be judgmental; He wants us prayer-mental. As instinctively as we have judged people, we should pray for them instead. Today, countless Christians are angry with their elected officials. We say our anger is "righteous indignation." I too feel this troubling that people elected to serve have so misused our national treasure, bringing our nation to near ruin. Yet, if my goal is to be like Christ, I must remember: Jesus expressed "righteous indignation" for, perhaps, a total of one hour during His recorded ministry. Once was for the hardness of people's hearts (Mark 3:5), another was for the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes (Matt. 23:13-36), and other times were at the temple when the Father's house was used for something other than redemptive prayer (Mark 11:17). So, yes, Jesus was angry, but His anger was always replaced with love and intercession for God's people.
How long has your anger lasted? Are you sure your love has not grown cold? Are you sure you are not seeking to justify a root of bitterness and call it righteous indignation?
"Well," some argue, "our government officials have sinned." When Paul called for prayer for kings in 1 Timothy 2:1-2, Nero was emperor of Rome. Nero was one of the most corrupt men who ever lived. He did not have an illicit relationship or two; he had public orgies. He skinned Christians alive. There were occasions when he illuminated his night banquets with living torches, Christians, who were tarred and then set ablaze on poles. Nero and his guests dined surrounded by Christians dying for their faith. Yet Paul wrote that we should pray "for kings and all who are in authority" (v. 2). Nero was king when Paul wrote this command.
Some may misread my words, assuming that I think there is nothing wrong in government or society. Yes, there are many things wrong in our world, and God will certainly call us, at various times, to confront the sins that plague our lands. However, my concern is not as much with the White House as with the Lord's house! If we are not praying for our elected officials, the least we can do is to stop cursing them!
The Father's house is to be a house of prayer for kings and all in authority. We can adamantly disagree with the political views that a leader has, but we must also adamantly cry to God on their behalf and serve as intercessors, even for our cultural enemies.
I can understand the reason for anger toward elected officials, especially if we consider that they are not doing their jobs. But if all we do is judge them, we are not doing our jobs. It is not the Holy Spirit within us that calls for God to judge sinners; it is our frustration with people and the delay in the restoration of righteousness. My friend, beware; for when you pray for judgment to come, remember that it begins "with the household of God" (1 Pet. 4:17). To pray for God to judge a nation or city for its sins actually initiates judgment from God on the church for its sins! And the Almighty will start with those who are quickest to judge others!
When I pray for the political leaders guiding the United States, I ask the Lord to protect them from the influence of ungodly counselors. Where they have failed, I appeal to God to forgive them and to show mercy in regard to the relaxed moral standards of our land and especially concerning abortion, which breaks the Lord's heart. For those who are clearly corrupt, since we are a democracy, I pray that God would replace the evil leaders with righteous leaders.
The Lord desires for us to "stand in the gap" (Ezek. 22:30), positioning ourselves between the failings of man and the sufficiency and forgiveness of God. Then, He calls us to persevere in this intercession until, in one form or another, righteous change occurs in our society.
For all who are embittered with their nation's leaders, remember: each of us must give an account for our sins at the "judgment seat of Christ" (2 Cor. 5:10). Let us consider with holy fear the warning of God: "Judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:13).

Jesse and Kara Birkey
Reflect Ministry
www.reflectministry.com
jbirkey@reflectministry.com
813-405-7952

"God does not expose our needs in theory, but in relationship with others."

Posted via email from jessebirkey's posterous