Hebrews 12:12

New Living Translation (NLT)

So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees.

For meditation

The race is long and the course is difficult. Yet, it is the only way to glory. The training regimen is rigorous, and we have Discipline, that is strict and determined to get us across the finish line for the prize, as our instructor. But sometimes, it gets too difficult and lonely, and we get tired and discouraged. Elijah sums it so well for us with his desert declaration, “I have had enough, Lord … Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors” (1 Kings 19:4).

It is very easy to get there. The prophet was riding high after Mt. Carmel. Queen Jezebel didn’t take the defeat lightly when her husband reported it to her. She dug in and quickly dispatched a threatening message to Elijah that sent a chill through the prophet’s spine; and he ran for his life. Sometimes when we come out of a gruesome war victorious, we become battle weary and very vulnerable. Elijah got scared of another confrontation; especially, against ruthless Queen Jezebel. At that low point, he lost his perspective, and fear assailed him. Life became worthless and he wished to die. But God is good! His compassion never fails His children in their sinking ship. He came along Elijah and encouraged him with renewed strength to continue the race to the summit of Horeb, the Mountain of God. There, God appeared to His son and instructed him in his new assignment before taking him into glory (5-18).

The Holy Spirit encourages us through the Hebrews writer to, “Take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees” and run for it (Heb. 12: 12 NLT)! No self-pity, my friend; for as Charles Swindoll warns in his commentary on the Elijah episode:

 “The most damaging impact of self-pity is its ultimate end. Cuddle it and nurse it as an infant, and you’ll have on your hands in a brief period of time a beast, a monster, a raging, coarse brute that will spread the poison of bitterness and paranoia throughout your system. You will soon discover that the sea of self-pity has brought with it prickly urchins of doubt, despair, and even the desire to die.”

1. Are you discouraged?
2. Does fear grip you, as you confront your circumstances?
3. Are you drained of hope?
4. Are you sitting on your hands and dragging your feet because you’re tired of life?

I pray you’ll take your eyes off of your circumstances, tune your mind away from the noise around you, and look up to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith.

May you hear His words of encouragement today and get a grip of yourself and, putting your hands in His hands, move in His strength to finish the race.

You’ve come too far to fall away!

Shalom