Consider the Multitude of Faith’s Examples

Hebrews 12:1-4 

1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.

Because we have so many witnesses who lived by faith, trusting God amidst trials, fears, adversity, and even death, we should stop and consider their examples as testimony to God’s sustaining grace and faith.  There are so many in the scriptures that the collective number is as a cloud filling the sky to gaze in awe at the size and majesty of it.  Therefore we also ought to take every burdensome thing we face and put it outside of our thoughts, and we ought to do likewise with the sin we hold on to.  Only then can we run the race unhindered with the heavy burdens which slow our pace or drive us to our knees under the spiritual strain. We do this first and foremost by putting our focus on Jesus Christ who began and will complete our faith (Philippians 1:6) as He called us and continually works in us to conform us to Christ.  The joy of the suffering and death to self of the cross must also be ours, seeing Him suffer and rise to all authority as Lord and King; by following His example of enduring the unwarranted hostility in identifying with Him, we press on with gladness instead of mere endurance.  By His example of suffering to glory we can avoid becoming worn out and discouraged, especially for most of us who have not suffered as much as He did by wounds or death.  We fight against our sin and the temptations around us by looking to the examples of Christ and others throughout the scriptures, and find hope and strength to run joyfully forward and upward.