September 15
Run with Patience
Hebrews 12:1

Chapter 11 of Hebrews talks about the faith of Noah, Abraham, Moses and others and how they lived by faith.  It talks about what they went through because of their faith and how they persevered in their situations because of their faith.  Then the writer of Hebrews says here that since we have such a ‘great cloud of witnesses,’ or since we can see what these people have gone through by faith we also are encouraged to persevere as well.

He says to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets.  Notice the difference between a weight and sin.  Sin will beset us.  It opposes and frustrates the plans of God in our lives.  A weight is something that may not necessarily be sin, but it’s something that slows you down and holds you back in the race of life that is set before you.

He says since we can see how these great cloud of witnesses lived by faith then we also should lay aside every weight and the sin and we should run with patience the race set before us.  To run with patience means we run with endurance.  Strong’s Concordance says, ‘cheerful or hopeful endurance or constancy’ for the word patience.  We run, but it’s not anxiously or frantically. It’s with a cheerful, steadfast endurance.

Confession:

I will lay aside every weight and sin.  I will run with cheerful endurance the race that is set before me.