📊 Hebrews 12:11 | Moving Towards vs. Running Away

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📧In today’s email…

• 🧠 Passage context: The 2 types of struggle we experience

• 🤔 Moving towards God vs. running away from Him

• ⚒️ Something to help make discipling others easier

• 📊 Tuesday trivia

🧠Memorize

_{see if you know what words go in the blanks}

For the moment ___ __________ _____ painful rather ____ pleasant,

but later __ yields the peaceful _____ of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12:11

Passage Context: 2 Types of Struggle 🤓

Hebrews chapter 12 begins by pointing back to chapter 11, which detailed examples of heroic faith and perseverance in the midst of persecution.

The ultimate example of this, of course, is Jesus, who endured torture and death.

Through it all, He maintained His trust that God was working out all of those trials for a good purpose.

The rest of chapter 12 talks about 2 types of struggle:

1. When we sin and live outside of God’s will, we can expect Him to discipline us (in the way a loving father corrects their child)

2. For the sake of training, God sometimes puts us in positions where we struggle (in the way a coach trains an athlete to prepare them for competition)

Regardless of which type of suffering we find ourselves experiencing -

— They should cause us to run to God as a loving father.

Moving Towards vs. Running Away 🤔

There are two main responses we tend to have to hardship (regardless of whether we’re experiencing discipline from the Lord or struggle for the sake of training):

1. The hardship makes us move towards God

2. The hardship makes us run away from Him

I remember Tim Keller once preaching about this and here’s a paraphrase of what he said:

When your identity is based in finite things (success, status, money, your relationship), it’s like you’re in a boat on a lake and your anchor can only reach halfway down to the bottom.

When the water is calm, everything seems okay.

But when the storms of life come…

• Your family member dies

• Your relationship ends

• You run out of money

• You lose your job

Your anchor doesn’t work and the storms bring you further away from your source of identity.

But when your identity is found in Jesus, the storms of life come and it can bring you closer to your source of identity.

The choice is yours 🤔 

Which tends to be your default when times get hard?

• Do you run away from God? (this can look like apathy, giving Him the silent treatment, or coping in unhealthy ways)

• Do you run towards God? (this looks like going to him in prayer, moving towards a community of believers and sharing what you’re going through)

When we run away, our faith often gets weaker.

When we move towards, our faith often gets stronger.

Sit in silence with the Lord for a few minutes. Based on your answer above, ask God:

What are you wanting to say to me right now?

✍️ If you’re a journaler, consider writing down what you think you hear and share it with a trusted friend.

Your Discipleship Co-Pilot 🧑‍✈️ 

My friend Matt is working with a few other believers on a tool to help followers of Jesus make disciples in their local community.

Think of it as a 'co-pilot' that uses technology to help guide and support those mentoring others in their faith journey.

If you’re interested in helping them research or trying it when it’s ready, check it out here.

Tuesday Trivia 📊

Click one of the options below! Let’s see how you do..

Answer key ✅

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant,

but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12:11