There is something beautiful and strengthening when we know we are supported. We can somehow reach just a little deeper, jump just a little higher, go a little further when we know that someone is cheering us on. Jesus has already run the hard part of His earthly race. He knows what it is like to be rejected, to be misunderstood, to be a misfit, to be unwanted. He also knows what it is like to be victorious, to finish well, and to give it His all.
It is easy to become discouraged in these hours—to feel that you are not doing all that you can, to not exactly know how your piece fits into the grand God-sized puzzle that God is assembling. You may feel isolated, like there is no one nearby who sees and understands the deepest burdens of your heart. Please consider that in the heavens there is not only a great cloud of witnesses but Jesus Himself watching and cheering on His bride as she lives out her earthly journey.
Jesus knows every step of the race, every dip in the road, every uphill climb, everything that could trip you up. Rather than thinking of yourself as a marathon runner wannabe or a poor excuse for a soldier, see yourself as someone that Jesus has decided to invest His heart in. He is not doing the future without you. Think of that! When a man weds his wife, his days of doing everything by himself and for himself are over. A man leaves his mother, and a woman leaves her home, and they go forth together with one purpose. He now looks after his wife, and his wife looks after him. Earthly marriage is a foreshadowing of the marriage of Jesus and His bride.
In order for His marriage to His bride to happen, Jesus had to run His earthly race and sacrifice Himself so that we could come back into right standing with God. He ran His race and finished His course. He now watches over us with tender mercies and rapt attention as we run our leg of the race. He has invested His Spirit in us so that we are connected to Him. He believes that we will be a fit bride for Himself. “For the joy set before Him, [Jesus] endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”[1]
Dear ones, we are His joy. We were the ones in His mind when He ran His race. He believed that there would be a people who loved Him so much that they would choose to be eternally united to Him! Let that ennoble you and build you up. Let that give you determination and courage. Let that knock back the sleepiness that has fallen upon us. Who you are and what you do is witnessed by both a great cloud of witnesses, principalities and powers, and, most importantly, by Jesus Himself. We are running the same kind of race in the same kind of fallen world that Jesus experienced. Peter exhorts us:
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.[2]
The same kind of things that happened to Him will happen to you. We partake of the sufferings of Jesus because we are about to be wed to Him! We are in it for Him and with Him! More gloriously still, He is in it with us! The above passage from Hebrews depicts Jesus sitting at the right hand of God: He finished His race and sat down. Yet, please consider this: In Acts 7, Stephen is being martyred. He is the first person to be martyred for the sake of Christ. Stephen bears witness to what he sees, saying, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”[3] The Word of God is true, so this is not a mistake. Jesus is standing at the right hand of God. I do not think it is a stretch to say that Jesus is standing and cheering Stephen on because the first fruit of who He will inherit is running his race well indeed. Jesus stands to cheer Stephen on!
We are now in an ever-increasing partnership with Christ. As we near the end of the age, we will, as the Bride of Christ, be crying, “Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!” We will be about our Bridegroom's business: He is gathering Israel to Himself and gathering a great company of souls who will follow Him wherever He goes. When Jesus left, He said to Jerusalem, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing….I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’[4] In that day, all Israel will know the Lord, but first a great tribulation will come.
It is our job to stand on Earth as the Lord's people to midwife the birth of a nation during that time of great tribulation! The Lord has an inheritance in Israel and in all the people He will gather to Himself on the day of His return. As we labor with Him toward that Day, we do not labor alone. Our Bridegroom watches over us with care, cheering us on. There are “greater works” that have to play out before principalities and powers that Jesus chooses not do Himself but has left for us to do in His Name. He has invested much in bringing us to a place where He can marry a Bride worthy of Him. So stand up, strengthen your feeble knees, cup your ear and listen: Jesus is cheering you on from Heaven. Let that cheer strengthen and inspire you. It's not our best life now; it's our best race now.
Rose-Marie Slosek came to know the Lord in the early seventies and has a passion for organic church and the maturing of the Body of Christ. She serves on the Emmaus Online Lead Team, leads Maranatha Northeast, and a local home fellowship. She can be reached at rmslosek@comcast.net.
[1] Hebrews 12:2
[2] 1 Peter 4:12-13
[3] Acts 7:56; emphasis added
[4] Matthew 23:37-39
