Run With Endurance

Good Morning,

Running was never one of my strong suits, nor one of my favorite activities.  In high school, my basketball coach wanted me to run on the Cross Country Team, which he also coached.   It was not because I could be a big help to the team, for I usually finished near the end.  No, he wanted me to be in condition to play basketball.   Lynn, one of my best friends, one that played guard with me on the basketball team, was a great runner.  He won many of our Cross Country meets, and running in the State Championship against several hundred, Lynn finished 20th.  He always ran to win.  I never did, for I thought that was an impossibility. 
 
In Hebrews 11 we read of Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Moses’ parents, etc. who lived by faith and looked forward to a coming Messiah. Jesus said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day"  John 8:56.  These men and women in Hebrews chapter 11 were people like us. They had been called to run a race and they ran the race. They are witnesses as to how we are to run that race.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us"  Hebrews 12:1.


 Endurance
  "We count them happy which endure" (Jas. 5:11)
 
Endure...chastening (Heb. 12:3-17).
Endure...grief, suffering wrongfully (1 Pet. 2:19, cf. 1 Pet. 3:17).
Endure...temptation (Jas. 1:12, cf. 1 Pet. 1:6-7).
Endure...afflictions (2 Tim. 4:5).
Endure...hardness, as a good soldier (2 Tim. 2:3).
Endure...all things, for the sake of those we are seeking to win (2 Tim. 2:10, cf. 1 Cor. 9:22).
Love endureth all things ( 1 Cor. 13:7).
He endureth, as seeing Him who is invisible (Heb. 11:27).

 
Henry