Perseverance according the Book of Hebrews

Stuck my entire music collection on shuffle to help me write this blog...currently listening too 50Cent - Outta Control. Really just inspired me to hurt somebody. Jokes. Anyways.......

The book of Hebrews, just like James, makes some phenomenal claims about perseverance, and the most astounding one in my humble opinion is found in Chapter 12, verses 1 - 14 to be specific. These verses also teach about God's discipline, but thats a whole different ball game. well actually it's not, stop arguing with yourself sam, nobody cares.

Romans 3:23 says that "for all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Everybody whether obviously or not, brings before God a burden of sin, which through the grace of what Christ accomplished on the cross has been taken off our shoulders.

Some sins, do seem worse than others, but in a divine context, "whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point, is guilty of breaking it all" (James 2:10). However, the encouragement found in Hebrews is incomparable:

"Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us"

The hope and promises found in that verse alone are astonishing. The author of Hebrews, under divine inspiration, is here telling us what is stopping from being the people that God created. Through the salvation found in Jesus Christ, we have the power to "throw off" the sin that "so easily entangles us" and "run" the actual "race marked out for us".

Lets not think for a minute that our race is a race within and empowered by sin. It is not! Our race is a race towards Jesus (v2 says "let us fix our eyes on Jesus"), who is the "author and perfector of our faith" and is outside of sin.

Sin will forever attack us and leave little roadblocks on the race track because satan by his very nature is "the accuser" (Revelation 12:10). He roams to and fro (Job 1) searching for people to accuse.

However, we are encouraged to run the race with perseverance. The writer is in no denial that trials and temptation will come our way, but he knows and wants us to know that because of Christ we have the power and the right to overcome, and to run the race that God has set before us...irrespective of our past