What is this great shaking you are experiencing? Do not lack trust or faith, but be assured that you will receive the full reward of your endurance, as you remain faithful in the process of shaking, as Christ did when He suffered the terrors and anguish of His crucifixion, because of the joy that was set before Him. You will overcome with Christ.
~Danielle Teramani
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
~ The Encourager, in Hebrews 12
Oh beloved, it is true.
We will fail. And there will be times where what we do is wrong. We will make some whoppers of mistakes. We will fall short of His Glory. This is axiomatic. It is written – thus it is true.
And yes, our failure and falling short has damned us. We are – apart from Him – condemned to an eternity apart from Him. So, hopefully, the reader of this entry will not be sensing that this fool of a writer is saying that failure is any sort of viable option.
No, what i am talking about is the lie that the liar keeps heaping on us.
The toxic rouxs of self-condemnation.
The bitter dregs of believing we are not loved.
The terrible rumors of our inability to succeed.
The fetid pools of our former self, backsplashing on us.
The wretched moments where we actually begin to listen to any of it.
Can we see it?
This, like everything else that is a problem in our lives, is really about where we are looking. Look at the passage, and see the Solution it presents. Hebrews, like everywhere else in His Word, gives us a clear picture.
The solution is not in us thinking better.
The solution is not in us behaving differently.
The solution is not in us moving to a new location.
The Solution is a Person. Thus, the implementation of this Solution is to look away from all the lies (and everything else) and to look at The Very Person.
His Name is Jesus. He has already won the victory of sin and death. Surely He can win the battle over my fears and silly little ego that puts me at the center of everything.
Surely.
So, are you struggling with a sense of failure? It happens. But lies are always just that. The past is where it belongs. And the Eternal G_d has declared His work over sin and death Finished. Tonight is your night beloved. Time to believe in His success in saving you (and me).
Truth matters. Believe.
The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.
~Buddha
