Community Is… A Cloud Of Witnesses (Daily Devotional)

Hello everyone, welcome to Living Supernaturally. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to spend these few moments together in God’s word and prayer. This week, we are talking about community and being the church that God has called us to be. Today, we will talk about community is a cloud of witnesses. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 through 3, ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.’ Clouds form when water vapor merges around a tiny dust particle in the air. Clouds actually need small dust particles to form. Every cloud contains some sort of condensed vapor around the small piece of dust. Then, they take on fantastic shapes. I’m sure each one of us have observed clouds maybe while we were outdoors or in our backyard. Clouds often have different shapes and sizes, sometimes those clouds provide great inspiration, sometimes they look dangerous to us. Each type has its value, sometimes shading a hot summer day, sometimes forecasting a weather pattern, other times pouring tremendous rain on the earth. Just before this verse, the entire eleventh chapter of the epistle of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews has been summarizing the various heroes of faith and the characteristic of their faith. It is at the conclusion of that summary, that the book of Hebrews calls this a cloud of witnesses. Each of us is a type of cloud, in our own way and in our own witness. Whatever our shape/ size/ altitude, each of us has a witness. We are witnesses to something; we witness faith for sure. We believe in something that is not always seen, maybe like water in the air that is not always seen but is always there. Ultimately, the cloud of witnesses surrounding us are all witnesses to Jesus. We are here because we have seen and tasted the goodness of God and the love of Jesus Christ in our lives. We are surrounded by the saints in the past in a unique way. It is not that the faithful that have gone before us are spectators to the race we run, rather it is a figurative representation and it means that we ought to act as if they were. We are inspired by the godly examples these saints set during their lives. Paul pictured himself as a runner who had to run a race to finish and nothing could keep Paul from finishing that race with joy. He is our focus; He is our inspiration and our example. God has set before us a race. We must run it and it will involve effort and commitment. Being passive never runs or wins a race. God wants us to run the race and finish it right. The cloud of witnesses connects together in one great community. Let’s pray, Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for teaching us, and for your word that encourages us. We pray that even as we continue being the church that we will gain inspiration from these great heroes of faith and that our eyes maybe fixed on you, for you are the author and the completer of our faith. We thank you for what you have done and what you are doing in each of our lives, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week’s theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week’s devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.