How many of you have ever run in a race or even jogged a long distance? If you have, you have experienced the same thing I did many years ago. I ran with a group of people for about 10 miles. We went by bus to a place way out in the country and were given the task of running, jogging or walking back to where we started. During those 10 miles I experienced some of the challenges a marathon runner might face. A stroke survivor who ran in the 2005 LA marathon wrote this about his first marathon.

“Running is an equalizer of people. It does not matter who you are or what you do in your other life. We are all just runners with a journey ahead. You may wonder how some people are going to survive the race. And then you really wonder later, when they pass you by, will I survive? Endurance is not merely about muscle.”

As believers, each of us is a part of a faithful race. This race is not just a one time event, it is a lifestyle of patient endurance.

Hebrews 12:1-3
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Hebrews 12:1-3 show us three steps to running the faithful race with patient endurance.

Many times runners training for a race will run with weights on their ankles or in their hands. Then on race day, they take off these weights and it is like their feet are as light as a feather. Verse 1 reminds us that because of the great examples of believing we should lay aside the weight and sin (weight of sin) that so easily besets (surrounds) us. To lay aside is to put off or strip away like you would take off dirty sweaty clothes after a long race.

Colossians 3: 8-10:
But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

So, to lighten the load we need to put off the thoughts, actions and words originating from the old man nature by putting on the new man.

Verse 2 of Hebrews 12, Says we are to look unto Jesus who is the author, initiator, and finisher of faith. The words “look unto” literally mean, “look away from all else unto.” We are to look away from all else unto Jesus. He is the supreme example of believing as the one who believed to the uttermost as he completed the redemptive work for us.

In Mathew 14:25-31, the record of Peter walking on the water, we see what happened when he changed his focus from looking to the Master and looked at the wind and waves. When Peter stepped out of the boat and started walking on the water it was because he trusted the word and command that Jesus gave him and was focused on him. When he turned his focus to the wind and the waves he began to sink but Jesus saved him. So after we put off the weight of sin contained in the old man nature, we need to change our focus from the distractions of the world and look unto Jesus, the one who embodies all that faith is.

I Corinthians 15:57 and 58 show us what our appropriate response is.

I Corinthians 15:57 & 58: 
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

So, to sum it all up:

To run the faithful race we need to lighten our load by striping off the burdens of sin that are part of the old man nature and continue pursuing with enduring faithfulness the race that is set before us, like the examples set forth in Hebrews 11 and Jesus who is the greatest example of faithfulness.

We take a conscious effort to change our focus away from all else that would distract us and look unto Jesus who is the greatest witness of faith. He encompasses all that faith is through the life he lived and the work of faith he accomplished when he sat down at the right hand of God.

Finally we are to think on all that Jesus accomplished and endured for us as our example to the end that we have the same patient endurance so we don’t become weary or downhearted in our minds.

Let’s run this faithful race together with the patient endurance which we have because of the finished work of Jesus Christ

- Ken Fonda