DEVOTION
TO HEBREWS
THE LEVEL PATH
Heb 12:12-13
12 Therefore, strengthen your
feeble arms and weak knees. 13 "Make level paths for your feet," so
that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
NIV
This ‘therefore’ is based on us
being the children of God who are being instructed, corrected, rebuked, or
whatever else God needs to do within us. It does seem strange that we have
a part in this work of God within us. We must strengthen our weak and feeble arms
and knees. First, we should take note that this is not about our arms and knees,
for some of us are young and have arms of steel and knees that are fresh and
flexible and able to leap buildings in a single bound, while others of us are much
older with weakened arms and knees that no longer allow us to leap over a blade
of grass. Therefore, this must have something to do with the state of our mind
and spirit. Interestingly, both Isiaah and Solomon said the same thing.
Jesus also made the same point, but in a slightly different way when he told us
not to let our hearts be troubled, but to trust in God and trust also in him. We
are not to grow weary, that is not grow feeble and weak, because of situations
in life that fight against us, so to speak. As we are well aware, life is not
always a bed of roses, but there are times when the thorns prick us. Then there are
times when we live among the thorns and life just starts to wear us down. This
is why the author quotes both Isaiah and Solomon and encourages us to not
let anything weaken our arms or knees, but instead keep running the race marked
us for us, on the level path, that straight and narrow path the Lord has laid
out for us. If we get weak or lame in our thinking, and thus in our responding
a lame way to various hardships or things in life that oppose us, or our way,
our desires, or wants, then we need to focus on Jesus, keep our eyes upon Jesus
and those things of earth will grow strangely dim. This is making our paths
level. This is following the light on the path marked out for us, no matter
what age we are. The path has no end in this life, even death does not stop us,
for we will then be walking alongside Jesus. In the meantime, as long as we have
the breath of life in our lungs, we are to walk that level path marked out for
us and never grow weary, or lose heart, allowing our arms to become feeble and
our knees weak. We cannot allow our thinking or our spirit to become feeble and
weak. The only way to make our path level is to follow Jesus. If we get our eyes
off of Jesus and on ourselves then the path may become a little crooked and
bumpy, which can be the cause of weak arms and feeble knees. Let us always walk
that level path.
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