What is it that keeps you from living a life of obedience to God? Do you struggle with a particular sin, habit or attitude?
Every now and then, we all tolerate things in our lives that makes it difficult for us to please God. And when we know we're not pleasing God, we typically aren't happy with ourselves either. This is one reason that Hebrews 12:1 tell us to "...lay aside every weight..."
The words "lay aside" are taken from the Greek work, apotithimi, a compound of the words apo and tithimi. Apo meansaway and the word tithimi means to place or lay something down. These two words when compounded gives a picture of someone who is laying something down while at the same time he is pushing it far away from himself.
Removing sin from our lives will not occur accidentally. We must decide to change - to remove, to lay aside, to put away attitudes and actions that don't please God and adversely affect our walk of faith.
Also, this verse refers to these incorrect attitudes and actions as "weights." The word "weight" is from the Greek word ogkos - a word that describes a burden or something so heavy and cumbersome that it impedes a runner from running the race as he should.
What if an athlete tries to run the race with loads of extra weight? S/he certainly would not be able to run very far! That is exactly what sinful attitudes and actions do to your walk with the LORD. If you don't remove them, they will eventuallyweigh you down and knock you out of the race of faith!
The Holy Spirit is urging you and me to take a good look at our lives and then remove everything that weighs us down and keeps us from a life of obedience. We must be honest with ourselves and with God.
Do you have a habit, attitude, action or sin that binds you? Are you plagued by a fear that weighs you down and keeps you from fulfilling your potential in Christ? Make a rock-solid, quality decision today to grab hold of those unnecessary burdens and remove, lay aside, and permanently put them away from your life.
Once you make that decision, you'll find yourself running your race of faith with much more ease as you press on to victory!
This post was adapted from Sparkling Gems from the Greek
BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.