Overwhelmingly, it is the number one word women in my life keep using when I ask them, “How are you doing?” Weary. For many women when hard times and hard topics need to be navigated in their life, they hear the echo of that old hymn “O soul are you weary and troubled?” internally nodding their heads. Maybe it’s where your heart is also today. Perhaps, you are weary of suffering, others sin against you, doing battle against your own sin struggles, or the monotony of your season of life.
God isn’t surprised by your reaction of weariness in hard times or working through hard topics. In fact, we can see that he anticipated His people would be prone to weariness. After describing faith and celebrating His faithful people in Hebrews 11, He addresses this reality in Hebrews 12. That chapter begins with a charge to “lay aside sin” and live a life for Christ “with endurance.” Let’s read those verses before moving on:
“ 1 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, 2 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.3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”
Do you see the picture that is painted in this passage? The believer is compared to a long-distance runner. As the believer lives a life of faith, she lays aside the burden of sins as she goes on her way. It’s like the various sins are carried on her shoulders, weighing her down, only making the running harder. These sins aren’t easy to dispose of, but rather leech like. She’s trying to pull them off, but it takes intentionality, perseverance and multi-tasking because she is, after all, still running. What is the motivator of the runner? Not positive visualizations of the finish line or a repeated mantra, but the person of Jesus. The runner is intentionally meditating on Jesus instead of herself or her surroundings. The runner thinks through the reality that Jesus is the origin of her faith, and that He will do the work of perfecting her faith. The runner meditates on the idea that Jesus is the One who joyfully, not begrudging, practiced endurance Himself on the cross. She remembers that Jesus put little weight in the dishonor of the experience of the cross because His true position is in heaven by God’s side. This central focus is her go to as she keeps placing one foot in front of the other sometimes slow and timid, other times, confident and fast paced.
Verse three is where we gain deep understanding in regard to how we are to address weariness in our life as we run our own long-distance race of faith. The answer is simple to understand, but difficult to faithfully implement: think about Jesus. Think through, weigh, contemplate the Jesus who also endured. He bore calmly the ill-treatment of rebellious people while He was dying for them. That old hymn by Hellen Howarth Lemmel was on the right track when it continued in the refrain:
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.”
The remedy when we tire of this world, when we feel spiritually feeble or weak in our inner person, in our thinking, feeling, doing, and wanting is the same kind of intentional meditation of that runner in verse two. It’s turning from other things to focus on Him, looking at Him fully until we only see the Glorious and Gracious One.
One of my favorite verses, Psalm 16:8, says it this way “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” What a lovely visual, of Jesus, being with us as we live out our faith for the long haul. Jesus stands in front of us cheering us on, encouraging us by His own example of endurance on the cross, coaching us about our pace and form through His word and the work of the Holy Spirit. Moment by moment, we begin to remember that He is at work in us, that He has set the course for our good, that He has enabled us with muscles that can grow in strength and that when this race is over, we have eternal rest with Him where He will gloriously be always before us.
Questions for Reflection
1. What has you feeling weary today? Take some time naming them before God in prayer.
2. Where do you see your weariness the most in your heart? Another way to say this: does your weariness come up most in your thinking, desires (wanting), emotions (feeling), or doing (your will)?
3. Think through Hebrews 11. Which hero of faith inspires you the most?
4. Consider how the hero you picked in question 2 “always set the Lord before them” or did God make Himself known to them?
5. Read verse 2 &3 again. Take some time to think through, contemplate, consider the Jesus who endured the cross. What stands out to you the most about the ways He endured? Spend some time in prayer asking Him for that kind of endurance.
*Resources used for reference: www.blueletterbible.org (Including, Strong’s, Vine’s Expository Dictionary, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon) and the ESV Bible translation.