Looking Unto Jesus

fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,
who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- 1 Samuel 18:8 -

The race of faith is long.  At some parts it gets arduous.  There are stumbling stones of fear and doubt in the way.  We get tired and discouraged.  The road seems too long and hard.  And we hear the whisper of a sinister voice, "Can you really do it?  Come on, give up.  Turn back.  Or at least stop a while and take a break."  Our heart falters.  Our faith wavers.  Our hope diminishes.  We look at the ground and wish we could just fall there and rest.  We just do not feel like going on. But that is just the moment we must look up!  Look where?  Look to Jesus!  No matter how we falter, no matter how tired we are or how faithless we are, there he stands faithful with wide-open arms to receive us.  He has run the race before us and won it for us.  We are running a course of victory!  Let us not run in defeat. There is more!  The same Jesus who ran before us runs also with us.  He lives within us - inside you and I.  He is called Immanuel, 'God with us'.  He is the parakletos, the 'one called alongside'.  He is beside us to strengthen our steps and hold us steady.  Therefore look not at past defeats, nor at current discouragement.  Fix your eyes on him who walks beside you and draw your strength from him.  Let your faith be strengthened by him whose faithfulness is everlasting.  He alone is our hope.  He alone can save us from doubt and fear.  He alone is our strength and our portion forever.  He alone is our purpose and our goal. Therefore harken to the voice of Jesus and fix your eyes on him.  Shut your ear to the whisperings of doubt and deceit.  Christ is the author and perfecter of our faith, who has run before us, and who runs beside us, and whose victory we have even here and now.