Tag: weary

  • Hebrews 12-Grow Not Weary and Lose Heart

    For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

    Hebrews 12:3 NASB

    Endurance for the race

    Life wears me out – daily and year to year. My faith fades into a fog of uncertainty as I wonder if the Lord has any use for me at all. I am weary of sin and sinners, my heart broken and soul suffering. How will I endure this marathon of mortal life?

    Can you relate to that? Do your days run endlessly with all around you asking you to sprint to their end rather than endure the race of hope to finish?

    It was no different for a persecuted church, yet in Christ we have found our Hope and Light to victory over death and the joy of the prize.

    The author of Hebrews has just connected a genealogy of Jewish faith where ‘faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now he urges us to continue in Christ by faith.

    Lay aside every burden

    Cast your burden on the LORD,
    and he will sustain you;
    he will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

    Psalm 55:22 CSB

    Many know well the comfort of our Lord’s invitation to give to Him the great weights of our lives which hold us down.

    At that time Jesus said,

    “All things have been entrusted to me by my Father.

    “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

    excerpt from Matthew 11:25-28

    The author of Hebrews has just shown us many witnesses who have gone before us in this long journey of faith. He has provided the evidence.

    Hebrews 12:

    Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us.

    Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.

    Hebrews 12:1b-2a CSB

    Clear imagery of our remaining days, as well as the persecuted lives of the early Christians to whom the author of Hebrews wrote his letter. We are not in the race alone, but have run it with Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, the many Prophets of God and all the others.

    We have received a baton of hope from our forefathers, which we may place gently into the hand of our children by faith. Jesus, the Messiah is our hope of winning the prize joyfully awarded by our Heavenly Father.

    Fix your eyes upon Jesus

    It bears repeating: Jesus IS our pacesetter. He has run this same race of mortality before us.

    Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

    ἀφοράω – aphoraō

    • to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something

    He exhorts us to turn away from things that are not part of the race of eternity and fix our eyes on the finisher of our faith.

    The once-familiar hymn based on this passage expresses the authors same desire.

     
    O soul, are you weary and troubled?
    No light in the darkness you see?
    There’s light for a look at the Savior,
    And life more abundant and free.
     
    Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
    Look full in His wonderful face,
    And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
      In the light of His glory and grace.
    2
    Through death into life everlasting
    He passed, and we follow Him there;
    O’er us sin no more hath dominion
    For more than conqu’rors we are!
    3
    His Word shall not fail you, He promised;
    Believe Him and all will be well;
    Then go to a world that is dying,
    His perfect salvation to tell!

    Do not lose heart

    These three verses appear as an introduction to Hebrews 12, but they comprise the heart of the author’s conclusion continuing in chapter 13.

    3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.

    Fix your eyes upon Jesus. Our race is not ended, but Christ our Redeemer assures our victory!

    Striving against Sin

    Have your forgotten the exhortation, the admonition and encouragement of scripture?

    Proverbs 3:11 Do not despise the Lord’s instruction, my son,
    and do not loathe his discipline;
    12 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.

    7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline?

    Are you an obedient son or daughter of God our Father? The author of Hebrews continues with the example of earthly fathers. They discipline their child because the love them. It’s just for a few days, but God’s discipline to our holiness yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.’

    Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees…

    Hebrews 12:12 CSB

    Walk the straight and narrow so that your woundedness may be healed.

    ἁγιασμός – Sanctification

    We are all broken though perhaps we have not yet shed blood for the sake of God. Our lives, disjointed by the sin that surrounds, wander the paths of unrighteousness.

    What is needed? How will a sinner like me ever get to the holiness required of heaven?

    The writer of Hebrews will continue to chastise us as a loving father when we continue in chapter 12.

    To be continued…

  • Rest for the wicked; hope for the weary

    Rest for the wicked; hope for the weary

    It so happens as the Lord had planned it that the launch of http://talkofJesus.com -+- CHRISTIAN SOCIAL WITNESS coincides with the American holiday: Labor Day.  We will have picnics, parades and some much-needed family time.  No school.  Post offices, banks and many not-so-greedy businesses closed to give their employees a rest from their labor – something all of us need at times.

    A prior post began with this same thought. It is about Sabbath rest – a related, but different reference to the word of God in the Bible.  We’ve likely heard the expression:

    ‘NO rest for the wicked and the good don’t need any.’

    NOT true; NOT Biblical.

    We ALL need rest and we all need work.

    +

    American’s inherited this Labor Day idea of rest though the long-standing culture of the King James Bibles so much apart of our Christian heritage.  The original call for rest comes from Jesus.

    “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Matthew 11:28

    At one time Americans realized the importance to honor God through our labor and to honor labors as God’s own workers.  Sadly, in a 21st c. America (or Europe, Asia or any other place) we don’t get that, do we?  (Jesus tells us why – which I will reveal in a moment.) The world has two approaches to labor:

    Work hard for your SELF. (More work, more reward: right?) God doesn’t really need that “offering AND tithe” to honor Him — after all, the Government gets plenty of our required monetary support.  Our Country will take care of us.

    OR

    I don’t need to labor because Uncle Sam* takes care of me and will always help me.

    *  ‘Americanized’ personalization of our impersonal ‘representative’ Government.

    God never intended for ANY to have a rest from the work they will NOT do.  (We won’t go there today. That’s a different scripture.)

    +

    Getting back to talk of Jesus:

    The crowds had flocked to hear Jesus on the hillsides of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.  Jesus traveled from city to city on His northern tour.  Everywhere Jesus traveled, He was expected.

    Matthew 11When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

    Imagine the excitement of the promised Messiah of God coming to your city.  Jesus was predicted by the Prophets.  Jesus was proclaimed by the greatest prophet their contemporary, John the Baptist.

    John was a ‘hell-fire and damnation’ kind of preacher: popular with the people, but imprisoned by the religious establishment.

    REPENT! And be baptized (changed permanently). Cleanse your sins before you must stand before the HOLY ONE.

    Yet our Lord is also calling the people of the cities to hear Him and obey.

    20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

    Jesus? … Preaching ‘hell-fire and damnation’ like John?

    Read what He said comparing the disobedient to the people of Sodom.

    Come to Me, and I Will Give You Rest

    25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will…

    28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    What is Jesus saying about our labor?

    Jesus is illustrating a picture of manual labor.  He doesn’t say to just give it all to Him and He will take care of it.  (I’m not saying this about prayer.  We are talking ‘labor’ here.)

    • Take my yoke upon you a picture of the collar of two doing the work of one.
    • learn from me – a direct reference to learning from the example of His life.
    • I am gentle and lowly in heart [Jesus is kind and humble. Have you learned this from His Perfect Example?]

    and [IF you will do this, according to our Lord]

    • you will find rest for your souls. 

    30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    Jesus didn’t say ‘Take a break and I will do it all for you.”

    Jesus actually called out the people who refuse to repent and listen to Him for their wickedness.

    Our Lord knows how weary we become in this world.

    Do we remember: disobedience was punished in Eden.  Unpleasant work became part of our sinful heritage for having knowledge of good and evil.

    Jesus offers to share in our work in this world.

    Will you work with Him on that?

    Though we are wicked sinners

    Because of the Cross of Jesus 

    Weary laborers have hope.

    Come unto Him.