I'm EnthusiasticSample

Remember Joy

Hebrews chapter 11 is a list of the people Hebrews 12:1 calls our “crowd of witnesses.” In other words, here’s a load of folks so filled with God they couldn’t help but spill Him all over the earth. Names range from the guys like Noah, Abraham, and David to women like Rahab the prostitute. These hall-of-famers had three things in common: they were the unlikely choice, they endured significant difficulty, and they lived full of God (en theos).

In Hebrews 12:2 we see Jesus Himself walk a similar path. He patiently endured the cross because His eyes were fixed on the joy before Him. What was His joy? To do the work of His Father. What was His reward? To be with His Father. How did He endure? By keeping His eyes on His Father. Like David, Jesus trusted God daily, He walked with God daily, and he worshipped God daily. Jesus was en theos.

Why should we live with enthusiasm? Because we’re also en theos. We’re by God, for God, and in God. He is our fuel and our destination. He is our endurance and our reward. We are enthusiastic because God made the unlikely choice to put us in His story. And when we live this way, the story gets so much better, and the crowd of witnesses gets so much bigger!