Devotion by Chua Xiu Wen (Chinese Translator)
Heb 12:1-2 (NIV)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
As we continue to grow towards spiritual maturity in the Lord, we must be able to acknowledge that we may be living in different seasons from one another and therefore, face different challenges. Often, frustrations come when we look at the lives of the people around us and feel disappointed that we have not yet arrived at where we think we should be. We feel anxious and perturbed when we do not get to do what we want to do—now.
Yet, what if we are exactly where God wants us to be, doing exactly what God wants us to do?
The Bible says that the life we live on this earth is likened to a race. When we think about a race, often, it’s about how we must run faster to win, and how our competitors are gaining on us or even ahead of us. We then put ourselves under much pressure and dismay, wondering, “How can I ever win at this race?”
The truth is, we don’t all run on the same race. In Heb. 12:1 (NIV), the Bible tells us, “… let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us …”. From here we see that every believer has a race marked out for him or her that us unique, specially catered with different set of challenges, duration, etc.
When we look at the characters in the Bible, we see various men and women who were called by God—each one with a unique call over their lives. Mary was a teenager when she was called by God to bear forth the Saviour of the world. Moses was eighty when God called him back to Egypt to free the Israelites from slavery. Jesus entered into ministry at the age of thirty. It is not up to us to decide the schedule of how our lives will run; we must learn to trust in God’s schedule.
How then do we run in this race marked out for us? In verse 2, the writer of Hebrews tells us that we must do so by “… fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
The key is to fix our eyes on Jesus and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, to walk on a path and at a pace that is uniquely our own. We don’t have to be pressured by what others are doing and what we are not yet doing. We just have to obey Him as He gives us leading and direction to run our race. It will be a word that is specific to you. What we have to do is simply to depend on Christ and obey His voice.
There will be times in our lives when we feel like in the fishermen in Luke 5, who have toiled all night and caught nothing. Yet, our Lord may come to us with instruction to launch into the deep and let down our nets for a catch. Will we tell the Lord, “No way, Lord! I have already tried all night and caught nothing. I am not going out there again!” Or will we respond like Simon in verse 5, when he said, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” The result of his obedience was astonishing. In verse 6, we see, “And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.”
We have to obey His word even when we do not understand why. God is alive; He is Elohim, a creative God, He can work in ways we can never imagine. Today, He may use a donkey to speak to a prophet. Tomorrow, He may use a big fish to teach us obedience. We cannot limit God on how He wants to work, but we can choose to obey when He speaks to us.
Regardless of whatever season we may be in right now, regardless of whatever it is that God has prepared for us to do in this season, let us learn to follow in His leading, to run on a path and at a pace that is uniquely our own.