The Focus Of Faith

The Focus of Faith

Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Hebrews 12:1-2

Hebrews 11 IS A WONDERFULLY ENCOURAGING CHAPTER about great heroes of faith. We read of their bold actions that were based on nothing but a promise from God, their steadfast insistence on his words, their vision of the greater “city” he is building, their endurance through adversity and persecution, and the great rewards that far outweighed any costs they suffered. We read with admiration, letting the author’s repeated declarations that it was all “by faith” sink deeper into our hearts. And then we go back into the Old Testament and read the stories of these heroes and realize a very startling fact: Most of them were extremely flawed people.

Yes, our heroes of faith were a mess. Many of them came from dysfunctional families and passed on their dysfunctions to future generations. They made lots of mistakes and ended up with lots of regrets. They sometimes said the wrong things, did the wrong things, and got mixed up with the wrong people. Some were victims of horrible offenses; others perpetrated horrible offenses. They lived from day to day and year to year with moments of great faith but also seasons of wandering and wondering in between. In other words, they were human—very much like us.

Perhaps that’s why the writer of Hebrews follows up this glowing list of heroes of faith with encouragement that applies to all of us: We are to lay aside everything that weighs us down—our sins, to be sure, but also our regrets, our obsession with “getting it right,” and our doubts—and run the race with endurance. How? By fixing our gaze on Jesus. Instead of focusing on the messes in our journey of faith, we are to focus on the one who ran the race perfectly and the fulfillment he accomplishes—just as the writer of this letter did in chapter 11. When we gaze at our flaws, our obstacles, or the race itself, we falter. When we gaze at the inspiration of our faith, the champion who leads us on, we endure to the end and win.

Fight the good fight with all thy might; Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right.