The path marked out for me

"Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him..." (Heb. 12:1b-3a). 

"Marked out for us".... I am running the path marked out for me. Today, I don't feel like I"m running--perhaps more like I'm being run over! But God has marked out a path for me--he knows the way I take. The Son sustains me, and every single thing in the universe, by his powerful word (Heb. 1:2). He sustains me, moment by moment. He is sovereign over the instances, moments, events, in my day, and he has marked it out for my path, for my good. Today, my path has seemed long, tiring, exhausting--but in his hands, in his wisdom, it is so that I can "share in his holiness" and it will "produce a harvest of righteousness and peace" (Heb. 12:10, 11). He has marked out my path, he knows the way I take, and when I come forth, I shall be as gold (Job 23:10). And he will receive the glory in his sovereignty.

"Marked out for us..." I am not running alone. I am running with the One who for the joy set before him endured so much more than I am and will ever. He knows my suffering, my weakness, my temptations, my trials, my weariness, my desperation, my loneliness. He endured it all, so that he can free me from my greatest enemies, so he can help me when I am tempted, so I can find grace and mercy in my time of need (Heb. 2:14-18; Heb. 4:15-16).  He is with me, and understands and knows me. He has endured the ultimate shame of the cross so that I can be with him forever, so that he can be with me on this path--so that he receives the glory in his immanence.

I am running with the Victor, the author and perfecter of my faith. He has destroyed "him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil" and freed me from my ultimate enemies (Heb. 2:14-15). What more can stand between him and I? He will bring me to himself. The outcome is sealed, and I run right now in light of that ultimate victory he has finished for me. He is the author of my faith (Heb. 12:2) and has called me, and those he has called he will justify and glorify (Rom. 8:28-30). He is the perfecter of my faith, the One who is sanctifying me now and the One who will carry me to the end and keep me from falling, who directs me into his own perseverance (2 Thes. 3:5; 1 Cor. 1:8; Jude 24-25). And he will receive the glory as the Initiator and the Finisher, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega.

He is my High Priest, who is interceding for me in his exalted state at the right hand of the Father (Heb. 7:25). The very One who has set my path, who has run the race ahead of me, has run it for me, who is running it with me, who sustains me on it, who has defeated the obstacles on the path, is also praying for me, now, at this moment. And he will receive the glory as the Lamb who was slain, and the perfect High Priest.

The path marked out for me--today, a path of suffering and pain and weariness and it seems more than I can endure. But he endured the cross for the joy set before him--the joy of his receiving glory by my being with him forever, the joy of my being with him today in this moment of my need (Heb. 4:16). And he will receive the glory as my joy. 

I feel this blog does little to express the deep comfort the Spirit has ministered to me by this phrase, in light of all that the book of Hebrews has proclaimed about my Savior. Yes, consider Him--wherever on the path you are. The One who marked it is the Sovereign Sustainer, the Faithful Victor who shares his victory, the High Priest praying, the One in whom there is Joy.