“Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.” (Hebrews 12:1)
Sin. We have all inherited the nature of it from Adam and Eve. In each of us it shows it’s ugly head in a variety of forms. For some it’s pride, or greed, or gluttony, or lust, or bitterness, or jealousy, or worry, or insecurity. You know I could go on, but each of us is keenly aware of the sin that easily trips us up. And we know how long it has been tripping us up. Perhaps weeks, months, or maybe even years. We know how long it has sat on our lap, climbed into our hearts and minds, set up residence, and mocked us. Whatever the sin is, it is very real and very much a problem for us, and our spiritual condition.
But the question I want us to wrestle with is this: What are we doing about the sin in our life? Do we try to hide it from others, hoping they won’t notice? Do we live in denial over it? Do we know it is always in our face, but refuse to do anything about it? Do we perhaps enjoy it so much that we really don’t want to deal with it? Does it feed something unhealthy in our lives that we just don’t want to give up?
The writer of Hebrews tells us that we must “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.” The first thing we notice in this verse is the fact that the responsibility to overcome our sin rests entirely on our shoulders. No one else is going to come along and remove it from us. We can’t go to any surgeon and ask them to eradicate it. In fact, I find it interesting that the writer doesn’t even tell us to ask God to remove it. God removes the nature of our sin through Jesus Christ, but stripping off our individual sins are our responsibility. No one else can or will do it for us. God wants us to get rid of it because whether we want to admit it or not, the sin we indulge in is doing damage to our relationship with Jesus Christ. That does not mean that God loves us any less. It means that he has so much more for us than what we are willing to allow him to do, because we keep tripping over our sin.
But here’s the good news. Christ does not leave us on our own with our sin and wish us good luck overcoming it. He knows how weak our flesh is. He knows how great our struggle is. He knows how difficult it is for us to let go of our sin. So he has given us the greatest help we could possible receive to do this. That help comes from the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 lists the nine fruit the Holy Spirit can produce in our lives. They are listed as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness……and self-control. Though listed last, self-control is the most needed power the Holy Spirit gives to help us strip off, lay down, overcome, and walk away from the sin that keeps tripping us up. Without his help, our self-control fades off into the sunset. In our flesh we don’t have the power to strip off any sin.
So what are you waiting for? Isn’t it time to finally get rid of and walk away from that sin that keeps dragging you down? All the self-control you need is living inside of you – just waiting to help.
Darlene