Hi, and thanks for joining us for this daily encouragement from our daily bread.

Our reading titled Running for What Matters was written by Monica LaRose.

It was impossible not to tear up at my friend Ira's status update. Posted in 2022, only days

after she'd left her home in Kiev, the besieged capital of Ukraine, she shared a past image of

herself lifting her country's flag after completing a running event. She wrote,

We are all running to the best of our abilities, a marathon called life.

Let's run it these days even better than that, with something that never dies in our hearts.

In the following days, I saw the many ways my friend continued to run that race,

as she kept us updated on how to pray for and support those suffering in her country.

Ira's words brought new depth to the call in Hebrews 12 for believers to run with perseverance.

That call follows Chapter 11's moving account of the heroes of faith,

the great cloud of witnesses who'd lived with courageous, persistent faith, even at risk to their lives.

Even though they only saw and welcomed God's promises from a distance, they were living

for something eternal, for something that never dies. All believers in Jesus are called to live

that same way. Because the shalom, the flourishing and peace of

God's kingdom is worth giving our all for. Christ's example and power is what sustains us.

Today's our daily bread devotional scripture reading is from Hebrews chapter 11, verse 39 through

chapter 12 verse 3. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been

promised since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be

made perfect.

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

...