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.
There are weights, burdens and encumbrances that stop the progress of many in spiritual things. Today’s scripture admonishes us to identify and shed off such weights. Our calling in Christ is likened unto running a race and in order for you to win in the race of life, it is important not to carry unnecessary baggage on your journey as being over laden with unnecessary stuff will hinder your strides.
Weights in scripture are unnecessary baggage and garbage! These can be either physical or spiritual.
Weights are those things that hinder your progress-anything that consumes your focus and takes it away from God and the things of God. They hold you back from the place of dedication and consecration. Weights weaken your spiritual energy in the things of God. They steal your commitment and make you unable to live a sacrificial life towards the things of God.
Identifying your weights!
The first step to dealing with any problem is identifying it. Similarly the first step to laying aside the weight as commanded by God is to identify them. One of them is the weight is singleness.
What takes your entire focus now or divides your energy? Could it be the lack of a life partner in your life or the fact you have no one to help you? Sometimes, the fact that you do not have someone in your life could become such a paralysing weight that drains your entire energy.
The man at the pool of Bethesda in John Chapter 5 was suffering from this, ‘I have no man’, syndrome. He used the excuse of having no man as the basis and reason why he stayed sick of paralysis. If you are of marriageable age and you are not in a relationship and feel lonely; what you must realise is that spending your time meditating on that fact will weaken and paralyse you and make you become depressed by the weight of such thoughts.
The pressure of thinking and trying to find someone can become such a weight on your shoulder that you may end up becoming useless to yourself and irrelevant in the program of God because you become blinded and unable to do anything else.
Be careful and avoid falling into the temptation of becoming overwhelmed just because you are single and unmarried. Being single is not a curse! Having no one who can help you is not a tragedy!
You must learn to cast your care upon the Lord and let Him handle that aspect of your life while you focus on serving Him with full passion. The measure of success of your life is not marriage.
You should focus on running the race set before you. Find your ministry in Christ and pour yourself into serving the lord.
Let’s also look at the weight of marriage.
Being married can sometimes become a weight and a burden if you have not decided to put God first over your marriage.
Your marriage can become an encumbrance in your walk with God if you are not careful. You have to constantly analyse your commitment to the things God and never allow the fact that you are married become your own stumbling block. Put God first! Lighten your load and run the race set before you looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of your faith.
Doubts can also be a heavy weight.
Hebrews 12:1 THEREFORE THEN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us.
We are running a faith race and we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who have themselves once ran the same race which we are required to run. If this great cloud of witnesses succeeded, their success should embolden us and we are to be inspired by them and learn how they overcame weights and sins that hinder people in their race.
Hebrews 11:4 [Prompted, actuated] by faith Abel brought God a better and more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, because of which it was testified of him that he was righteous [that he was upright and in right standing with God], and God bore witness by accepting and acknowledging his gifts. And though he died, yet [through the incident] he is still speaking.
Prompted by faith and actuated by hearing rightly (because faith comes by hearing); Abel brought God a better and more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.
One of the weights that actually cause many to sin is the burden of listening to wrong voices and yielding to the spirit of doubt and unbelief. The voice of doubt questioning God’s plan rather than yielding to God’s plan can hinder anyone from obeying God. Are you in that space where you are filled with doubts instead of faith? Do you spend your time arguing about God’s principles instead of obeying them? Do you know that doubt is a sin that easily besets many?
Romans 14:23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Cain and Abel were preached to (either by Adam their father or by the prompting of the Holy Spirit) about making first fruits sacrificial offerings to God. We know this is so because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the preached word.
Abel believed but Cain doubted. If Abel made his sacrifice by faith and Cain did not, it shows us how doubt and unbelief can cripple any man. Cain was rejected while Abel was accepted and the difference was that Abel walked in faith towards the word whereas Cain doubted.
Though Cain still offered an offering, he did it doubting. Romans 14:23 declares that he that doubteth is damned even if he goes ahead to act on what he doubts.
Are you in doubt about the principles of God like Cain? That is a sin you need to lay aside if you will run the race set before you. Genesis 4:3-5 Cain brought an offering to God from the produce of his farm. Abel also brought an offering, but from the firstborn animals of his herd, choice cuts of meat. God liked Abel and his offering, but Cain and his offering didn’t get his approval. Cain lost his temper and went into a sulk. MSG TRANSLATION
Genesis 4:4 Then Abel brought the first lamb born to one of his sheep, killed it, and gave the best parts of it as an offering. The Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering, GOOD NEWS TRANSLATIONS
We see the difference between Cain and Abel’s offerings in above scripture. Abel offered from the firstborn animals of his herd, choice cuts of meat.
This is the principle of God first regarding your finances. The God first principle is the reason for tithing and first fruit offerings in scripture. The first fruit offering principle was revealed to Abel and Cain.
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