After the heroes of faith, the child of God today finds proper application as we too walk the battle of faith and are headed for a homeland! If they could walk by faith in the time of dispensation, so can we in the time of reality! These hosts of witnesses are our cheerleaders to a sanctified life!

God sets before us and a picture is sketched as an athletic stadium full of witnesses that are there to watch the race. God sets the course (it is prescribed by Him.) They are not fans or just observers, but witnesses there to cheer us as having already run the race! This verse in the original has the word "agony." A strenuous, agonizing, wrestling journey. God has set the church in the antithesis and they are always tried. This is God's very design of the race course. Always wrestling with my flesh, Satan, and the world! A constant fighting of the battle of faith till we receive the crown of glory at the end! God also sets a particular race personally that we must stand on SOUND doctrine as all these things come from the hand of the heavenly Father...the designer of our course who tells us to run it! It is the purpose of God to work all things together that it shows we are his children and are to His glory.

But how do we run?

1. Lay away the weight of sin that besets us as it weight and slows us down. We must shed ALL encumbrances' like the runner does.

2. An athlete will also tell you what is good for him. What is helpful and beneficial and so must we know what will be beneficial to us spiritually as we run our course.

Let us shed our encumbrances and run our race with patience...steadfast endurance...understanding the goal that the Lord has for us no matter what our course is! The Lord Himself is the one who begins and ends our race and leads us along the way and we can be certain! We have to see the larger picture instead of the moment so we do not loose our patience while running. That picture is that God gives us particular things to accomplish His plan. It is the best way to take us to glory. We raise our children knowing maturity comes at a later age continuing to steadfastly raise them. And so we must run our race!

We also receive encouragement as we do so. Jesus IS the author and finisher of our faith! He brings us to the end of our faith and these passages say "look to Jesus!" Jesus knew the race that was set before Him and He endured because He knew the glory that awaited Him. Feast your eyes on Him if you need a model to look at and He is the victor and the one that stands in front of us and works our faith and His grace is ALWAYS sufficient! He WILL perfect our faith!

Don't forget the faller. There are many witnesses who speak to us and say "God is faithful!" They were the heroes of faith, fathers, mothers, and those who fought and even died for that faith! He took them to glory and they cheer us and will not be made perfect without us. Listen to them! The same faithfulness to them applies to us and we will endure till we are made perfect in glory.