“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” (Hebrws 12:1)
Every since I signed up to go on the Race, that’s whats been on my mind for the majority of most days…I’m looking sooo forward to this! But I let myself become bitter at Papa because I didn’t know where I was supposed to be or do until October comes. I didn’t feel any purpose living where I lived in Waxahachie…so I moved back in with my parents in my hometown of Ennis so that I could save money for the Race, and even started going back to the church I grew up in (which I swore I would never do again…but praise God that I did). It seemed to me like I was taking a step back when my greatest desire was to move forward. As each day kept creeping on, I became all the more bitter and unhappy because I was still stuck in this same place just waiting for October to get here. I even tried moving to Georgia, just so that I could have a change of environment while I waited.
Bitterness led to complacency in my relationship with Jesus.
Then a dear friend — *cough* Amy *cough* 🙂 — sent me a facebook message (gotta love our tech-filled world!) showing me the truth that I had a golden opportunity these next seven months to grow much closer in my walk. One of the things she told me was to tackle to issues that are going on with me…battles that I am facing. This message, mixed with the revelations Papa has given me in the last few weeks, brought me back to this passage from Hebrews 12.
Let us strip off every weight that holds us away from fully running after Jesus.
And now I’ve realized that my calling for the next seven months is to full force attack every weight that holds me away from fully running…every bad habit, addiction, personal fears and doubts about life, unhealthy friendships…all the things that hold me back. That’s a call for all of us…I know that each one of us is struggling in some form or fashion, and as much as some of us may never want to admit it…there are plenty of things that are keeping us wieghed down. So, although for many of us this remaining seven months may seem like an eternity now, let’s take advantage of this time and train ourselves to be even better warriors for Jesus.
But take notice that the writer of Hebrews doesn’t just hold sin as the sole means of our weight….he says to strip off every weight, including sin…not just sin, including sin. In other words, we need to let go of all of the garbage that wastes our time and fill that time with pursuing Jesus in the Word and prayer and servanthood.
It’s very very hard to strip off the weights, but it is not impossible…how do we do it?
“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.” (Hebrews 12:2)
