As believers Prayer and Word are essential to our life and spiritual growth. There is another necessary aspect to our daily walk.
That's the upward look!
Part of my life verse is:
Hebrews 12:2
"Looking unto Jesus ..."
Life Passage is verses 1 - 6.
Look at them. How rich are they! Hebrews 12:1-6
"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,
[2] Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
[3] For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
[4] Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
[5] And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
[6] For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
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**Verse 1 ".. surrounded or encompassed by so great cloud of witnesses" ... watching us!
Who are they?
See passage before ->
The previous chapter Hebrews 11 is the FAITH chapter.
It speaks of those who've walked in Faith before us - these are witnesses of earthly battles.
** Key part of this verse is the laying aside of the sin that does so easily beset us, trip us up ... doing it daily, moment by moment.
SO important!
**THEN we can have the upward look.. "looking unto Jesus "
He is Author and Finisher.
When He cried on the cross "it is finished" He finished the perfecting of our salvation.
"It is finished" = our salvation was paid! For us all and for all eternity.
** Verse 3: "CONSIDER HIM lest ye grow weary and faint in your minds."
Need perspective?
Consider Him.
Think it's hard going, you've it really tough?
Consider Him.
Look into that thorn-scarred face, look at those nail-scarred feet hands, that spear-thrust side!
Been spat upon, beaten, buffeted, mocked, in a purple robe lately?
"Consider Him"...
Our discipline (verses 5, 6) is really, really good.
Those hands feet etc show His Love.
As do the hard things in my life, God has a higher end in view than my earthly view.
Hard is definitely not enjoyable.
But hard is really, really good for us spiritually.
According to #Horatius Bonar, a Scottish hymn-writer:
"Suffering is the family badge of all true believers as they follow Christ, the Man of Sorrows."
"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
1 Thess. 5:18
Think your way is hard?
Yes! it really, really is.
However, we are not beaten or killed for our faith. The tongue hurts, the load we bear is so unfair and so heavy, the illness so debilitating, but its all temporal, temporary!
I'm realising more and more how little time we have.
We are but a BLINK compared to eternity.
But we're a redeemed, blood-bought child by faith in Jesus.
Precious.
Hard things = discipline = learning = very good.
As I've had medically 6 close calls, the brevity of life, that it may end with my chronic condition at any time is something I've lived with since mid teens. The last time July 2016 (see here), through these times I've learnt so much.
I would never change one thing .. even the hard, sad, bad things.
God makes it worth it all, as we cling to Him. A child who cleaves to his parent allows nothing to come between.
This is walking as Jesus walked. He is our coming King!
Let us never ever forget that and live everyday of our life as if it was today He was coming!
"Look up and be ready to go up!" (Bro. Mac.)
"Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus."
It is no accident that these words are included at the end of last chapter in our Bible (Rev 22: 20.)
God wants us to have the upward look, looking with joy to the coming King of Kings.
Lord bless and keep us all looking up!
Prayer hugs, Shaz in Oz.x.
# Hortatius Bonar wrote many hymns and books. A Scottish minister in Victorian era, he and his wife lost five of their children in days of high infant mortality.
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8 comments:
It is so easy to look only at our circumstances and moan and generally have a pity party, but when we look outwards and upwards we gain a new perspective and then joy comes!
Blessings
Maxine
Such an encouraging post. Thank you. You're so right, though we go through hard and very difficult things, I too wouldn't trade what I've learned through them for anything. "I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me." -Psalm 119:75 It's so good to be reminded that even the afflictions of this life, if we're His, only come from His faithfulness to us, and to thank Him for bringing us through them. I need to make some more Scripture plaques myself, it's always good to have verses like the one in your post around the home to be reminders throughout the day.
I was so very encouraged by reading this post! I have to always remind myself that god has a higher end in view than my earthly view and that hard is good for me spiritually. My word for the year is JOY and Last year carried over to this year is Thanksgiving.I struggle with Chronic pain so I must continually make myself focus on my blessings instead of my curses. Thank you for the reminders of truth. God bless you!
Thank you, Shaz, for these wonderful words as a reminder that we can always look to Jesus for help, strength, encouragement, anything we need. I love the rest of the verse and the next two "...who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." He is always faithful! Hugs
Yes the Lord suffered so very very much for us.
Praise Him for His faithfulness.
Bearing our sin.. counting it all JOY!!! For the JOY that was set before Him.
Praise Him indeed!!
I have just read a devotional by Corrie Ten Boon in which she describes an event at the concentration camp. She, along with the other prisoners, had to stand naked in front of the Germans. She described how awful she felt until she suddenly remembered how Jesus was stripped and beaten. She was then able to be thankful to God that what she was enduring was only a taste of what Our Lord and Saviour endured for us. How remarkable is that?
It is sometimes hard when we are going through rough times to always look toward Jesus and know that if we are doing his will, he has a plan that we can't see right now, and we need to listen to what he is trying to tell us through not only our rough times but also in the good times
Good morning Shaz. What a wonderful post. Wonderful words of life indeed! Yes, our Savior definitely had it worse than we do. I thought about that during the night when I was awake much of the time in pain. Oh, how I long for the day of his return to take us all home to be with him. I’m trying to wrap my head around the fact that this pain I am in constantly may be with me the rest of my life. My wings may be clipped from traveling great distances, but I am a child of the king. Of course I will continue to try to do what I can to make things better too.
Thank you for the time you’ve taken to write this beautiful post for us. I am blessed to call you my friend and my sister.
Blessings always, Betsy
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