Run To God
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I look at my life and feel like my faith is inferior. I want to do great things for God, but no matter how hard I try, I just don’t match up to all of those superhero Christians. There are superhero missionaries like Hudson Taylor and Adoniram Judson. There are superhero Bible scholars and translators like William Tyndale and William Carey. There are superhero reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin. There are superhero preachers like Charles Spurgeon and John MacArthur. And there are even superhero evangelists like D.L. Moody and Billy Graham. And these are only a few of the hundreds and thousands of superhero Christians that have accomplished greater things for God than I can imagine.
But on second thought, the Bible never tells us to evaluate our faith based on what others have done or in how the world reacts to what we do. Looking to the great chapter of faith in the Bible (Hebrews 11), does anyone else notice how “little” the “great” Bible heroes actually accomplished? Abel offered up a (one, singular) sacrifice. Enoch walked with God, and that is all he did! Abraham and Sarah moved. Isaac blessed his two (yes, only 2) sons. Moses left Egypt and then kept the Passover with the Israelites. These great acts of faith just happen to be things that any of us writing or reading this short article are plenty capable of doing!
So, you see, when it comes to faith, there is really no such thing as a superhero Christian. There are some Christians that the world takes more notice of (like those listed above) and some that the world takes less notice of (like me!). But when we take God at His word and analyze our faith, we see that our faith finds substance in Jesus and that the evidence of our faith is also entirely in what Jesus has done for us. With that kind of faith, based solely on Jesus Christ and not on us, we stop worrying about what we might accomplish (i.e. we stop trying to be superheroes) and we run to God.
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…”
Hebrews 12:1-2