Hebrews 12:1 “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,”
Those who “run” for exercise, thoroughly enjoy it (I certainly did as long as I could), but running requires “patience”; that is endurance, consistency, purpose, and strength. Those who “run” in a race have a prescribed course and finish line. Successful runners observe things along the way, but are neither slowed nor stopped by the things they see. Avid runners will “run” in all kinds of weather; low temperatures, high temperatures, rain, snow, ice, etc. So, we are exhorted to “run with patience the race that is set before us”. To “run” our Christian “race” “with patience” is to remain on the course that our Lord has prescribed for us in His Holy Word and not be slowed or stopped by the constant array of distractors along the way, the various obstacles in the way, those who say the way is to difficult, nor hindered by the personal pain. Christian runners do not “run” to obtain Eternal Life, they run because they have Eternal Life (II Timothy 1:9) and to show our love to our Lord (John 14:15). The prize in this race is an “incorruptible” “crown” (I Corinthians 9:24-27); that is, hearing our blessed Lord say in our heart’s mind, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). Christian runners are constantly, “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before” and pressing “toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14)! After we have “run” our race, one wonderful day, when we’ll “run” no more, may the Lord bless that we can joyfully say with Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (II Timothy 4:7)! — This Coronavirus is a distractor and an obstacle in the way; but, let us look beyond the obstacle, let us be a “good and faithful servant” of our Lord, let us fight “a good fight”, let us keep “the faith”, let us “press” on “toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”, and let us always look forward to that great day when the Lord will embrace us in His Holy Arms and say “well done”, on that day we shall “meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians 4:17)!