Run Well: Insights From Hebrews 12Sample

Health and healing have been at the forefront of everyone’s minds these past few years. Google’s year-end search summaries reveal the popularity of searches related to burnout and mental health. Will this unwell situation be the norm from now on?

Diseases have afflicted humanity throughout history. Remember, for instance, the plagues of Egypt? Our finite minds will always struggle to know whether epidemics are specific judgments of God caused by human sinfulness.

Scripture affirms that God does orchestrate epidemics of adversity (even on His own people) for His own principles and purposes. The prophet Habakkuk describes it like this: “Before Him goes pestilence, And plague comes after Him” (Habakkuk 3:5 NASB-95). God could have wiped us all out a long time ago.

Ultimately, what afflicts God’s world affects God’s children. God’s family is not spared from the grief and groaning of general, joint human suffering, and that suffering is part of fatherly discipline for our spiritual maturity.

During some of the first year of the 2020 global lockdown, I lived in an overlooked section of Hebrews. Likely preached in one sitting to a house church, the 13-chapter book is the longest sermon in the New Testament. In the next few days, we will discover how Hebrews 12, especially verses 12–13, helps us prepare for and persevere in the long race of ministry and the Christian life.