Hosanna Restoration Church

I find it comforting to know that I am running to the most wonderful God, the one and only true God. He is a God of love and comfort. He is my Father, my comforter, my protector, my provider, and my healer. He is my everything. He has always been all of this to all who love Him. In fact He loved us before we loved Him. This scripture refers to other people who lived and died by faith in Christ Jesus, and to those who lived before He came, believing that He was coming. So even before He was born, Jesus was the only hope for the world. This has not changed and it never will.

Now, as always, we are to keep running this race to win. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus. (Vs. 2) We can be sure that God will direct us and correct us, because He is the perfect Father. But tell me, what Father kills their child as a way of correction? What kind of father would infect their child with a terrible disease? Certainly not our heavenly Father! And yet we have people going around saying that this is just what God is doing. If that were true, then every time someone gets sick we would have to figure that it was God teaching him or her a lesson. I suppose that every time a child is abused, it is God using that parent to teach that child a lesson as well.

Every time I think I am done saying anything about this, I hear someone saying terrible things about God and blaming Him, and I just have to take one more run at encouraging people not to believe that God does such things. He is a good God, who would never leave us or forsake us. How could we run a race looking to Jesus if we believe that He is going to punch us when we get close?

We have a dog that we all think is really nice. From time to time I have had to give him some instruction. He knows when he is in trouble, and he won’t look at me when he knows he has been bad. I have to go to him and get a hold of his head and look him in the eye and tell him to straighten up. Once we get that eye contact back, he realizes that he is going to be okay and everything is back to normal.

I think we may be that way at times. We quit looking at Jesus and things go down hill. But He is so kind, He comes and takes us and gets us to look at Him. He does not beat us or destroy us. Rather, He picks us up when we have taken on so many things that weigh us down. He gives us the strength to strip those things off and get in the race that has the prize of all the wonderful promises of God.

Don’t allow anything to weigh you down. At the first sign of pressure look to Jesus and run as fast as you can. He will sweep you up in His arms and then set you back down so you can keep on running by faith. This is true whether you have known Him for many years or if you have never known Him at all. Look to Him today and everyday.