Strength

Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed- Hebrews 12.12,13 

Hebrews is such a theological book that it is kind of a special blessing to find all these words of practical encouragement here at the end of the book. 

Here at the end of the chapter the writer refers back to the race. It is obvious by now that this is a long, desperate, wearying, discouraging, tiresome race. We are certainly going to weary of the whole thing as the days and weeks and months and years and decades go by. 

I said before that I have never been a runner. I can’t imagine a marathon, or a triathlon, or the Iron man triathlon, or whatever comes after that. I hear though that there comes a time when you ‘hit the wall’ and think you can’t go any farther. 

From what I understand at that point runners have a choice. They can quit or they can suck it up, dig deep, find the strength to keep going, and stick with it. 

In our spiritual race we have the same choice. We get weary. We may even hit that spiritual wall. We too can quit or we can dig deep, find the strength, and move on. The big difference is that we don’t have to dig up our own strength from our inner reserves. We have a resource which does not depend on us because the Lord is our strength. 

God has the healing we need to keep on going. We can’t afford to quit. When we hit the wall it is time to depend on our strength in Christ and pick up those weary hands hanging at our sides, keep those tired legs moving, stay on the straight path, and keep on in the race with our eyes on Christ at the finish line.