Lay aside weight and sin… (Part 4) looking unto Jesus who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2)

Joy and suffering are inextricably linked within the pages of the New Testament. And part of what the verse here means, is that Jesus in order to push through, was not looking at the pain and difficulty of what He needed to face. Rather, He was looking ahead towards what His endurance would accomplish, namely the salvation of the world! With this perspective, He could in comparison totally dismiss the shame He was called to endure, as something to be despised, something to be totally dismissed!

There is so much in these verses, but what I want to look at this morning, is the principle that many times we need to endure short-term pain, in order to accomplish long term gain! In a world that screams out “I want what I want, and I want it now,” this is not a popular principal. But it is the road to maturity! Last night, I was at the graduation party of a friend celebrating having gained her PhD. It was a lot of hard work, it took a long time, and she had had to press through. There were times she wanted to give up. Likewise the road to maturity is sometimes difficult, but we will not reach maturity if we are not willing to press through the relatively short term pain in order to accomplish our goals.

This same principle is applicable to recovery. We will not gain the fullness of life that we are promised (John 10:10b), unless we are willing to deal with the issues. There is a recovery saying, that we will not change, until the pain of being stuck becomes greater than the pain and fear of change. So many of us would rather medicate the pain, rather than deal with what needs to be dealt with. So then many who use drugs do so to dull the pain, rather than to get high. But all this does is prolong the pain! And in order to recover, in order to move towards maturity, we have to follow the example of Jesus who pushed through the pain, setting his eyes on the joy of the end of the matter.

Father, thank You that we do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the weaknesses of our human nature, but, was tested and tempted in the very same way that we all are, and yet still did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). Thank You Lord for the Holy Spirit who You called alongside us to help and encourage and inspire us. Nobody is saying that its easy Lord, but with His help we can push through, with You all things are possible. Thank You again this morning Lord for Your life giving help in Jesus Name Amen