Title: Let's Be a Racer of Faith
Contents
Let's become a runner of faith (Hebrews 12:1-2)
The life of faith is just like a marathon running 42.195km, so is our life. When you run long distances, sometimes you get conflicted and tense in a fight with yourself. Sometimes we get frustrated, we fall, we despair, and we start again with a new determination, but falling again is the race in life.
Likewise, saints live by running these races. That is, we live the race of faith. The race of faith starts from the moment you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. Therefore, in order to win this race of faith, we must consider the following things.
1. A runner of faith must have a clear goal
What we look at can change the course of our lives. The drinker always looks at the bar after work. People who study always look at books. However, students who do not study only look at the game every day. The gambler only looks at gambling. Who should we look to? We must look to God who is the author of our faith and makes us perfect.
Once upon a time, a young man wanted to take a difficult past exam. But before the young man could study for the exam, he first went to see a wise old man who was very wise and virtuous. Then he asked the old man:
"How can I pass the past exam? Do you have any good tips or tricks? If yes, please teach me."
The old man who was asked the question gave the wrong instructions.
"Come on, can you fill this bowl with water and go round the town without spilling a drop?" The young man with the water in the gourd didn't understand the English language, but the old man said that he shouldn't drop even a drop of water. After thinking about it, with all my nerves and sincerity, I went around the neighborhood and came back. Then the old man again says:
"Young man, did you ever see a woman while you were going around town? No! Did you see a pub? No! There were a lot of people on the street? No! I didn't see anything at all. I only saw this glass of water.
.Then the old man smiled and replied: That's it, young man, that's the secret and the way to pass the exam you asked in the past. All I can say is that you must not look at anything other than that exam, give your heart to it, or sell your eyes on it until you pass the gate of the past exam you have been aiming for. The young man, who understood the meaning of the word, passed the past exam by focusing only on his studies and not paying attention while taking the past exam.
2. Racers of faith must start lightly
In order to race, you must remove obstacles that stand in your way. What are the obstacles?
In the middle of verse 1, it is written, “Every heavy thing and the sins that are easy to entangle.”
Runners do not run with anything on their backs or wearing long clothes. Athletes participating in the game take off all the burdens from their bodies and run as light as possible.
In order to successfully complete the race of faith, first of all, we must cast off the sins that easily entangle us. We must quickly break free from the world's obsessions that keep us from running.
We must boldly resist the temptations of the devil that stand in the way of the race of faith.
The text tells us to put off the 'sin that easily entangles us'. It is a sin to bind a person to their feet. No matter how well you run the race of faith, if you start getting caught in the snare of sin, you will not be able to run properly.
Dear saints, In order for us to do well in the race of faith, we must put off the clothes of sin and run only in the clothes of faith.
We must “put away every heavy thing and the sin that so easily entangles us” of the world and run.
We can win the race of faith when we cast off the burdens of worldly greed, honor, material things, authority, and worldly worries such as obstacles to following the Lord.
3. The runner of faith must race with perseverance
As in the latter half of 12:1, the race that is set before me is not to be run with strength, but with perseverance.
If you look at people who are usually successful, you can see that they succeeded not because of extraordinary talents or special abilities, but because of the extraordinary endurance that is not found in ordinary people. So, among successful people, there are many people who succeed through perseverance.
The famous German poet and novelist Goethe wrote Faust, which is regarded as the greatest literary work in human history. However, it is said that he started writing this work at the age of 23 and completed it over 60 years until the age of 82.
He did many different kinds of work over the years to complete this piece. He was a jurist, politician, thinker, novelist, poet, painter, director, physicist, botanist, and anatomist.
However, the reason he was able to write such a great work was not his genius, but his 'perseverance'.
Many people give up easily. Even if you have talent, you cannot use all of your talents. So today, having a lot of talent doesn't make you successful. A good education alone does not lead to success. Being brave alone does not lead to success.
Why? There is only one reason. Because I don't have the patience. Because I have no patience. You don't succeed because everyone gives up along the way. What these people really need is patience. Therefore, the runner of faith must race with patience.
It is said that in a house in China, nine families lived in harmony in one house. When my friend asked what the secret of reconciliation was, I led him to the warehouse. The jar was full of paper with the words "忍" written on it. It is said that whenever the family was upset, they put up with “忍” with ink.
A person who is patient at home and at work is a mature person and has complete faith. If you persevere in everything, everything will go well and you will be overflowing with gratitude. Fights, conflicts, breakups, and all kinds of tragedies in life are caused by unbearability.
We want to close the word.
A runner of faith must start with a clear goal and perseverance. Even if difficulties are wiped out during the race, I bless you in the name of the Lord that you will go forward looking only at Jesus, who has perfected your faith.