Read: Hebrews 12:1-3
Looking to Jesus . . . (v. 2)
Where do you look when you’re running? You could look behind you, where you’ve already run, but if you do, you might trip. You could look to the side at the sights around you, or even down at your feet, but you might bump into someone or something. The best place is to keep your eyes on the path, where you are headed. Then you can run well.
In the book of Hebrews, we are invited to run with our eyes fixed on Jesus. He is the “pioneer and perfecter of [our] faith” (v. 2 NIV). The race marked out for us as believers is a path Jesus has already run. His path was difficult, including death and resurrection, but Jesus fixed his eyes on “the joy that was set before him” (v. 2). There are no promises that walking as a disciple of Jesus will be easy, but he went ahead of us to show us the way. Christians are to fix their eyes on Jesus and consider how he ran his race so when we encounter suffering or hostility because of Jesus, we will not “grow weary or fainthearted” (v. 3).
In order to run like Jesus, we need to fix our eyes on him. For the next month, all the way until Easter, we will be focusing on the last week of Jesus’s life, the journey to the cross. The hope is that with our eyes on him, we will not give up or quit following him (v. 3).
As you pray, ask Jesus to help you fix your eyes on him.
About the Author
Stephen Shaffer is the pastor at Bethel Reformed Church in Brantford, Ontario.
