Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.
– Hebrews 12:3
I want to encourage those of you today who in any way would describe yourself as weary or faint-hearted. I want you to hear God speaking directly to you through his Word. Then I want to lead us to respond in prayer.
Hebrews 12:3 teaches us the necessity of staying focused on Christ during adversity.
God is saying to anyone who feels weary or fainthearted… Specifically, anyone who’s in Christ, he’s inviting you. And these are the verses that lead right into Hebrews 12:3 to fix your eyes on Jesus. Focus on Jesus. Remember the old hymn. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace… In light of his glory and his grace, his love towards you.
God is saying to you, in your weariness, in your faint-heartedness, fix your eyes on Jesus right now. See him, realize how much he loves you. Realize how he has shown that love to you by dying on a cross for you, by enduring, suffering and death on your behalf. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself and know that he right now is with you. Jesus, right now is for you.
And as you look to him, I just think about Isaiah 26. You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. Fix your mind, fix your heart, your sights right now on Jesus, and not just Jesus at the right hand of the Father, but Jesus in you. He’s living in you. His Holy Spirit is in you and let him be your peace. Let him be your strength. Let him be your hope and your weariness as you’re faint-hearted.
Hebrews 12:3 encourages us to follow Jesus’ example in adversity.
Oh God, I pray. We pray. Help us to fix our eyes on you today, Lord Jesus, to find in you the hope we need, the joy we need, the strength that we need, the peace we need, the wisdom we need to walk through this day, especially as weary and faint-hearted people.
Oh God, I just think about all the different ways that’s playing out in people’s lives who are listening to this right now, and just pray for your strength, Lord Jesus, and their weariness. Pray that you would help them to fix their eyes on you and to know that your eyes are fixed on them, that you love them. God, help them to hear this coming from you right now, to know that you love them, you care for them, and you want to be their peace and their help and their wisdom, their joy and their strength and their weariness.
Jesus, we praise you for your example to us that drove you all the way to the cross for us, for your resurrection from the grave, your ascension into heaven, and for the hope we have right now as we fix our eyes on you and as you look to us to help us as we pray.
Prayer for the Uuld People
Oh God, help us to point others to fix their eyes on you today. We pray for the Uuld people of Mongolia who had never even heard the good news of who you are and how much you love them. God, we pray that the Uuld people of Mongolia, you reach this illiterate people group, that the word of your love would reach their ears. They would hear about your love for them, that they would be brought to faith in you. We pray over the Uuld people of Mongolia, even as we pray amidst all the circumstances we’re going through in our lives. God help them to hear about and see you and help us who know about you to keep our eyes fixed on you today, especially as we’re weary and faint-hearted. In Jesus’ name, we pray according to Hebrews 12:3. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
