Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Standing on the field where the Battle of Gettysburg had been fought and where a national cemetery was being dedicated, Abraham Lincoln delivered perhaps the most famous speech in American history. His brief address ended with these words: “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
It is right and proper for a nation to honor those who gave their lives for the cause of freedom. Similarly, it is important for us as believers to remember and honor the godly men and women who walked the path of faithfulness before us. Hebrews 11 points to many of these Old Testament saints as examples of enduring faith. Their sacrifices remind us that we are part of a story much larger than ourselves. Each day we have the opportunity to honor their faith by carrying forward the same life of devotion, “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”
