God tells us we must run the race with endurance. It doesn’t matter how we start the race. What matters is how we finish it.
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. HEBREWS 12:1-2
Jesus teaches his disciples to endure to the end. We do this by fixing our eyes upon him, the ultimate example of endurance.
7. Jesus doesn’t simply teach his disciples “life hacks” to make their lives easier, but he calls us to imitate him. He doesn’t call us to do anything he didn’t do.
He is transforming us into his own likeness and image. So keep following him. Keep imitating him. Keep reading his Word, meditating on it, obeying it. Keep reading the gospels to see how Jesus lived. And don’t forget you are a disciple and will always be a disciple of Jesus. And even as you follow him, and do the hard work of a disciple, it is Jesus who changes you and makes you into his likeness.
This article on Lessons Jesus Taught originally appeared here.
