Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was at hand. He pushed through, despite humiliation, torture and suffering. He led the way, He calls us down that same narrow road. We are called to pray for the strength to endure, not for the suffering to be taken from us. We are called to cry out to God that we would have the strength to climb that mountain, not that the mountain should be removed. How shall we cross the raging river? How shall we walk through the blazing fire? With confidence in the one who has already came this way before us. With an eye on the horizon which with spiritual eyes is eternity. No matter how far it is, or it seems to be, we put one foot in front of another.

Brothers and sisters, there will be sorrow. There will be pain, there will be trials and tribulations. There is a whole segment of Christendom whose sole purpose it to avoid, at all costs, suffering. Rather they pray for the things of this world. How can they be immersed in the waters of life when they are standing in a few inches of water? Imagine trying to entice saints from the deep into the shallow. Imagine warning their adherents to avoid at all costs the deep. We are called to the deep saints. Into the depths of the storm. Into the depths of the floods and the raging fires. We shall not drown neither shall we be burned. We are called to run with patience the race that is set before us.

In order to do that we must lay down the things that burden us. We cannot run the race burdened with our own flesh. Our wants, our desires, our own temperament. To indulge the way we were, the old self, we must look back, yet no one can run a race looking backwards. It must die that we can run. Sin is a weight that is akin to dragging an anchor. The sin that so easily “besets,” us is the sin we find ourselves often running to. Can we run to sin and run the race of eternal life? We cannot. It is literally impossible to run two races at the one time. We have to quit one race and be sold out to the other. Looking unto Jesus is looking at the eternal horizon that lies before us. Keeping our eyes on the finish line is to keep our eyes on Jesus. The waves and the flames and the floods in life are designed to take our eyes off Jesus and take us out of the race. Victory lies ahead in the ones who endure to the end, to the horizon, to eternity and beyond. Jesus is the horizon, He is our eternity and He is everything that is beyond.