Week 6
READ Hebrews 12:12-17 “Persevering Faith”
QUESTIONS:
Today is a great lesson that we will need following yesterday’s lesson on discipline from God. We learned yesterday that discipline comes from God because he loves us and he wants us to be holy in our race of faith. We know God loves us too much to not discipline us, so knowing that, today we get a great encouragement to keep running!
As we know, any time there is the word “therefore” we have to see what it is there for. This passage today is directly connected to yesterday’s passage on discipline. Here is the exhortation to us. Discipline is not punishment for sin but a tool for deepening our faith and producing holiness. This book has left no doubt that God has punished every sin in Christ completely. That means every form of discipline that comes to us should not be viewed as punishment but as means to make us holy. How does discipline produce holiness?
Understanding discipline in this way, how does it help you run your race of faith?
Really verses 12-17 are encouragement, in light of the discipline of the Lord, to bear down and run! If you are running a marathon, there will come a point in time that all the training that you have received has prepared you and the only thing left to do is shut up and do what you know you’re supposed to do…fix your eyes on the finish line and RUN!
Imagine yourself running your marathon of faith. You are getting close to the end. You’ve been trained well. Now you’re at mile 22. You hear the great cloud of witnesses shouting encouragement from the sides of the street. Imagine you hear the things written below being shouted to you. In the space provided write out what you think each phrase means in verses 12-17. Why would they shout these things?
Lift your drooping hands -
Strengthen your weak knees -
Make straight paths for your feet -
What is lame…will be healed -
Strive for peace with everyone -
Strive for holiness -
Have no root of bitterness -
Have no sexual immorality -
Let’s learn from the example of Esau mentioned here in verses 16-17. Esau was running his race of faith but came to a difficult place. He came to a place of discipline and an opportunity to deepen his holiness and faith. He messed up. He quit running the race and took his eyes of faith off the prize. (For the full story of Esau read Genesis 25:29-34) What was Esau focused on? Was his faith in an earthly thing or heavenly thing?
How can the desire for food cause you to sin, similar to Esau, be similar to the desire for sex, which can cause you to sin?
How would this story of Esau have been different if his eyes were focused on a better and lasting possession in God rather than food that is temporal and earthly?
Verse 17 says that later Esau desired to repent, and sought it with tears, but was rejected. We can become so hard to sin that repentance will escape us. God will always forgive any sin, but our hearts can get so hard towards God that a particular sin will cause us to run to a place of no repentance. Be careful to not become so worldly-focused, like Esau, that you can’t find your way back to heavenly things. How can sin cause you to not run the race of faith?
Everyone has faith. It’s the object of their faith that results in their lifestyle and eternal destination. Faith placed in this world will cause a worldly lifestyle. Your faith will make itself known in actions. Similarly, faith in Christ will result in a life that is consumed with the worth and majesty of who he is. All that has been said of Christ in the first 11 chapters will fill our hearts until all we can do is put our head down, endure discipline knowing it is working for holiness in us, and run our race of faith with joy and passion. Our lifestyle will look like a race of faith. Now…what does your life look like? If your life looks worldly, your faith is in the worldly. If your life looks like a passionate race of faith, your faith is in Christ. What does your life look like? Be specific and transparent. There’s no one to fool but you. God already knows.