A crowd of witnesses

Hi friends!

So God just showed me His amazing encouragement! In my devotionals, the passage of focus was from Philippians 3:10-16.

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained."

The whole concept was how this Christian life is a race. Day after day, I trip and fall in my sin, and I have the choice to give up and walk away or to get up and press on. However, God doesn't expect me or you to do this all on our own; God gives us His strength and He sends us people to encourage us.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and 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” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

I've actually memorized this passage twice in my life- first as a requirement to finish my church fellowship's "Amazing Race" event and second as a Bible Memory workshop in my university fellowship's "Couch Hop" event. I never really sought out this verse on my own, so it's funny and amazing how God reminds me of this verse once again just to stress the importance of it. I've always been confused about the "great cloud of witnesses" because I couldn't quite grasp the metaphor. But after the explanation of the verse in the devotional, I've come to interpret it as God's witnesses cheering me on from a cloud. My imagination depicts this crowd of God's people, sitting in a cloud, watching me run the race of a Christian life, and cheering me on as an athlete. (It actually reminded me of the cloud guy from Mario Kart, which makes me laugh, but that's irrelevant.) Knowing how the body of Christ, made up of all believers, encourages me to get up after I fall is amazing! I've realized that this truth will be important to remember when I prepare and when I go to Japan. I might get easily frustrated when I must wait on God to answer prayers, when the team is not united, or when the people there are not receptive of my faith. Please pray for me to remember these verses and to continue pressing on whenever I encounter these frustrations.

Lastly, the devotionals challenged us to look up Isaiah 40:28-31 and fill in the blanks:

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the ­­­­______________ ______, the _______________ of the ends of the earth. He will not grow ________ or ___________, and his __________________ no one can fathom. He gives ________________ to the _______________and increases the ____________ of the ____________. Even youths grow _____________ and ____________, and young men _____________ and _____; but those who _________ in the LORD will ___________ their _____________. They will _________ on wings like eagles; they will _______ and not grow weary, they will ___________ and not be ______________.”

And as I was doing that, I realized that my theme verse was in this passage! I was like, "Wow God! The way you work, the way everything falls into place (almost like a coincidence, but not really), and the way you encourage is beyond awesome!" Now I'm super super encouraged that God will be there in my weakness and weariness to strengthen me always. I hope you can all be encouraged by these verses too!

Love,
J