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Hebrews 12:1 (NLT) 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 hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.
When I read this verse, I think of how our bodies respond when we trip or fall and hurt ourselves. The first thing you feel is pain. Pain serves as the body’s warning system – it instantly alerts you when there’s an injury or when something has gone wrong. Pain can also help in healing too. The memory of it will signal our brains as soon as we become too close to scenarios that might be repetitive of past pain. It warns us of further injury to places that have already been damaged. Sin, to the body of Christ, is what pain is to the physical body, our temples. When we sin, we may not feel the hurt and pain that it causes to our spiritual well-being, but the consequences of the sin will bring as much (if not more) discomfort and suffering as an injury to the body.
One of the things that we see happening in our world today is that we can no longer reason away our bad behavior and poor choices. We’ve intellectualized ourselves into a stupor. We’ve excused away things and tucked away our dark little secrets in hopes that no one will ever see them. Those days are over. All our backdoor dealings are coming to roost. Heavenly Father will only accept from us what is true and holy; and if we don’t figure out how to rise to this level by pursuing Him with our whole hearts, we will soon find ourselves without the strength and faith we need to face the challenges of our day.
The consequences of sin are no joke. Galatians 6:7-8The Message (MSG) says, “7-8 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.” The seeds you plant determine your crop. The sin you commit determines the consequences and conditions of your life.
Many Christians won’t put two and two together. They refuse to connect the dots and relate what they are experiencing today in life to their actions of the past. It’s not punishment, it’s consequences, and God has empowered us through His Word to correct ourselves through Godliness, so that we can have a better crop.
Many of us have had past relationships that we thought would result in marriage. We gave everything of ourselves, including our bodies. At some point we have to understand that when we give our temples to someone, to do with as he pleases, the end result is not going to be what we expect. A man doesn’t have the capability to repay a woman for a prize that great. Our bodies were gifted to us, but they belong to God. He is the only one that can reward us for such an offering. This is why He tells us through the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:1 (NLT) to “give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”
Through fornication, some of us have made idols of our boyfriends and the pursuit of their affection. We allow dating and being in a long-term committed or uncommitted relationship to cause us to hold on to folks so tightly that our grip cuts us off from honoring God.
The weight of sin is a heavy one. In Hebrews 12:1, it is clear that Paul knew it is virtually impossible to run a race with endurance and stamina if something really heavy is weighing a person down. God’s instruction to us is to strip off or let go of the person or thing that causes us to sin over and over again, because this sin will hold us back and weigh us down. We can’t go higher as long as the weight of it is on our backs.
Our Heavenly Father has put us in a race – a race that started as soon as we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Endurance is what we need in order to be successful at life, because life can take everything out of you. The Spirit that indwells us will give us what we need to keep running and not lose heart. He will help us stay the course. If we will trust him, he will also warn us of the danger of sin so that nothing separates us from our destinies or from the promises of God; not past hurts, sin, pain or heartache.
See for yourself the changes that will begin to take place when you have a different approach; you’ll begin to receive different, more blessed results. It’s not that we’re trying to be Miss Perfect 24/7. Paul was very honest in Philippians 3. He knew that when it comes to the level of spiritual maturity that Christ made available, he wasn’t perfect and neither are we. He said in verses 12-14, “12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”
The harshness of the consequences you’ve faced should also serve as a warning signal of sin. They take too much out of us and away from us to continue indulging sinful patterns. Many of us are struggling today because we haven’t repented, and we haven’t refused to sin again. The race that God has set before us was meant to be won. You will win. You will make that trip down the aisle as blissfully as you expect, but you’ve got to heed the warnings the Holy Spirit gives you, and you absolutely must, at all costs, honor God with your temple.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
“The Warning System of Sin” written by Kim Times, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2016. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.
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