I was riding my bike this past week battling the south winds for about nine miles. It made climbing up each hill more difficult. The wind blew me around and made pedaling harder. Trying to cut a path through the wind was truly a challenge. What should have taken less than thirty minutes took about forty-five. Riding against the wind made everything harder. Even getting a drink of water from my squirt bottle was harder as the wind caught the water and blew it away from my mouth and all down my shirt and legs. On such days you simply have to get your mind right and grit it out. Painful mile after painful mile must be pedaled until you can turn and ride with the wind at your back. One fellow rider once commented riding against the wind only makes you stronger.
Many of you who are reading this are riding against the wind in your personal life. You face opposition, resistance, and unrelenting pressure. Each time you think you are about to get ahead or get a breather another strong gust pushes you backward and you feel you are not making any head way.
I just returned from the hospital visiting two people. One is battling a terminal disease with a war like mentality. The other nearly died but was rescued and given a new leash on life. One is fighting for life and the other is grateful for a second chance. Both have had to face the wind. Both have known the exertion of faith in trudging through the blustery trials blowing like gale force winds against them.
It seems like some people ride against the wind their whole lives. They never seem to catch a break and face adversity after adversity and always seem to fighting the wind to get ahead. I am talking about good people, salt of the earth type people, people who have high and noble character. Even good people find themselves riding against the wind. I have never known a time in my life when I saw more people facing more adversity than I do right now. What counsel if any can we find in God’s word.
There is much counsel to be found in the Bible for drained and depleted people who have ridden against the wind weary mile after weary mile. Some have given care to the diseased, infirmed, or aged year after year. It has been a long hard rode. Others have battled poverty for most of their lives forced to live hand to mouth in the land of plenty but they have faced the harsh winds of living in lack. Some have ridden into the winds of dysfunctional families, tragic loss of loved ones, public failure, and what is more amazing is that many have done so without ever becoming bitter or giving up.
I am thinking of a lady I talked with recently at a hospital who was keeping vigil over her very sick husband. She had faced more hardship and pain than I have ever even thought about. Still she smiled, radiated joy, and she still had hope. How could this be? How could a lady whose whole life has been filled with pain, sorrow, and trials still have such a positive out look?
To answer that question and to see what the Bible says I will turn to one person who knew what it was like to ride against the wind. Paul suffered like few people have ever suffered on this earth. He was beaten, stoned, whipped, run out of town on multiple occasions, arrested, imprisoned, and at times abandoned by friends. He was sitting in a stinking rat infested prison cell with a hole in the floor for a toilet when he wrote the following words. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. [Phil 3:14] I don’t know if you caught that but here is his simple message for all people in whatever circumstances they are riding through life against the wind. PRESS ON! When the wind is blowing against us, we keep getting up, we keep pressing forward, we keep pedaling regardless of how steep the grade of the hill, we keep praying, and we keep hoping. The phrase “pressing on” means to run after, to seek after eagerly, and to earnestly endeavor to acquire. Run after what? Seek eagerly after what? Earnestly endeavor to acquire what? The answer is not so much what but whom. In running or riding against the wind we must keep our eyes on the prize or the finish line. Jesus Christ is the goal. We press on toward Him and He under girds us with strength and with hope when everything appears hopeless. We earnestly endeavor to acquire His peace, His strength, His joy, and His perseverance. He is the one who has set the example about what it means to endure adversity and to do so with joy. Fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy sat before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. [Heb 12:2-3]
One day over a year ago I was riding into a stiff south wind for about ten miles on a little bike jaunt but I kept telling myself that if I kept pressing on and enduring that I would eventually get to turn and ride with the wind at my back pushing me back home. When I made my turn, I kid you not; the winds suddenly shifted from the south and began blowing briskly from the north. I rode a near twenty mile ride into the wind the whole way. Some lives seem that way as well. Think upon this. If anyone ever got a raw deal on this earth it was Jesus. He never sinned and yet was punished for the sins of man kind by being slaughtered on a cross. The winds blew against Him too and yet He did two things. He endured it! He endured it with joy! Jesus was rejected by the Jews but He endured it with joy. The same crowds who shouted, “Hosanna,” one day shouted, “Crucify Him,” only days later.
In light of what Jesus went through on the cross because He loved us, the winds we are facing are not that big a deal. Press on into Christ and let Him build endurance and joy in you despite the adversity you are facing. The winds will shift eventually, if not in this life then surely in eternity.
I just received a phone call that the man I visited in the hospital earlier today died just a little bit ago. The hard ride he has been riding against the wind just changed. Because he trusted Christ to save and forgive him years ago the wind just turned to his back as he stepped into eternity with endurance and joy. He will never have to ride against the wind ever again though his widow of many decades still has some miles to go. May we keep pressing on.
Many of you who are reading this are riding against the wind in your personal life. You face opposition, resistance, and unrelenting pressure. Each time you think you are about to get ahead or get a breather another strong gust pushes you backward and you feel you are not making any head way.
I just returned from the hospital visiting two people. One is battling a terminal disease with a war like mentality. The other nearly died but was rescued and given a new leash on life. One is fighting for life and the other is grateful for a second chance. Both have had to face the wind. Both have known the exertion of faith in trudging through the blustery trials blowing like gale force winds against them.
It seems like some people ride against the wind their whole lives. They never seem to catch a break and face adversity after adversity and always seem to fighting the wind to get ahead. I am talking about good people, salt of the earth type people, people who have high and noble character. Even good people find themselves riding against the wind. I have never known a time in my life when I saw more people facing more adversity than I do right now. What counsel if any can we find in God’s word.
There is much counsel to be found in the Bible for drained and depleted people who have ridden against the wind weary mile after weary mile. Some have given care to the diseased, infirmed, or aged year after year. It has been a long hard rode. Others have battled poverty for most of their lives forced to live hand to mouth in the land of plenty but they have faced the harsh winds of living in lack. Some have ridden into the winds of dysfunctional families, tragic loss of loved ones, public failure, and what is more amazing is that many have done so without ever becoming bitter or giving up.
I am thinking of a lady I talked with recently at a hospital who was keeping vigil over her very sick husband. She had faced more hardship and pain than I have ever even thought about. Still she smiled, radiated joy, and she still had hope. How could this be? How could a lady whose whole life has been filled with pain, sorrow, and trials still have such a positive out look?
To answer that question and to see what the Bible says I will turn to one person who knew what it was like to ride against the wind. Paul suffered like few people have ever suffered on this earth. He was beaten, stoned, whipped, run out of town on multiple occasions, arrested, imprisoned, and at times abandoned by friends. He was sitting in a stinking rat infested prison cell with a hole in the floor for a toilet when he wrote the following words. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. [Phil 3:14] I don’t know if you caught that but here is his simple message for all people in whatever circumstances they are riding through life against the wind. PRESS ON! When the wind is blowing against us, we keep getting up, we keep pressing forward, we keep pedaling regardless of how steep the grade of the hill, we keep praying, and we keep hoping. The phrase “pressing on” means to run after, to seek after eagerly, and to earnestly endeavor to acquire. Run after what? Seek eagerly after what? Earnestly endeavor to acquire what? The answer is not so much what but whom. In running or riding against the wind we must keep our eyes on the prize or the finish line. Jesus Christ is the goal. We press on toward Him and He under girds us with strength and with hope when everything appears hopeless. We earnestly endeavor to acquire His peace, His strength, His joy, and His perseverance. He is the one who has set the example about what it means to endure adversity and to do so with joy. Fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy sat before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. [Heb 12:2-3]
One day over a year ago I was riding into a stiff south wind for about ten miles on a little bike jaunt but I kept telling myself that if I kept pressing on and enduring that I would eventually get to turn and ride with the wind at my back pushing me back home. When I made my turn, I kid you not; the winds suddenly shifted from the south and began blowing briskly from the north. I rode a near twenty mile ride into the wind the whole way. Some lives seem that way as well. Think upon this. If anyone ever got a raw deal on this earth it was Jesus. He never sinned and yet was punished for the sins of man kind by being slaughtered on a cross. The winds blew against Him too and yet He did two things. He endured it! He endured it with joy! Jesus was rejected by the Jews but He endured it with joy. The same crowds who shouted, “Hosanna,” one day shouted, “Crucify Him,” only days later.
In light of what Jesus went through on the cross because He loved us, the winds we are facing are not that big a deal. Press on into Christ and let Him build endurance and joy in you despite the adversity you are facing. The winds will shift eventually, if not in this life then surely in eternity.
I just received a phone call that the man I visited in the hospital earlier today died just a little bit ago. The hard ride he has been riding against the wind just changed. Because he trusted Christ to save and forgive him years ago the wind just turned to his back as he stepped into eternity with endurance and joy. He will never have to ride against the wind ever again though his widow of many decades still has some miles to go. May we keep pressing on.
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