In a nutshell
How many times I've read over these two verses without anything registering in this dull brain of mine, I don't know. But I look at it now and it stops me in speechless amazement. I've never read anything that so concisely sums up our journey and struggle. Take a minute, look at it and bite it off a few words at a time. What a treasure.
The parts that speak to me most are these:
- The fact that we cannot move forward unless we discard those things that weigh us down -- anything that worries us so that it seems greater than our sovereign God, anything that draws our attention and devotion away from Him.
- Our biggest obstacle is sin....especially those that "so easily ensnare us". And do they ever. They keep tripping us up, again and again like a spasm that won't quit. We find ourselves confessing the same lousy, embarrassing fault over and over and over again and our Adversary seizes on it and works on our confidence. After all, if we keep sinning, are we really followers of God? Would God really adopt such as us? How could He? We stumble and stumble again and then begin to despair. Unless we seize on God's magnificent forgiveness, we are frozen in place.
- How do we do this? By keeping "our eyes on Jesus". He's the one. He's already forgiven us. He calls us to freedom and peace. Just ignore what our messy lives suggest and keep plowing ahead to Him. There is nowhere else to go.
- Keep running the race. This requires effort, devotion and discipline. Salvation only comes from God, but we have to give God all we've got -- heart, mind, body and soul.
- He's the "author and finisher" of our faith. What an amazing word picture. He wrote the essentials of our faith with His words, His actions and His blood. And only He can make our faith mean something and He promises us He will when He returns to finish the story.
In the meantime, keep moving to Jesus. He's the one. The only one.
Created about 2 years ago
