By John Brito
Think of how far along you’d be if you would have fulfilled every new year’s resolution that you’ve ever made. You would be healthier, happier, and more prosperous, and your family would enjoy the benefits of having a better you.
But chances are, if you’re like most people, if you haven’t already given up on your resolutions, that you probably will by the end of January. It’s tough keeping resolutions. Just consider how many, if any, of last year’s resolutions you kept.
But what if there was a way to reach the important goals that God has set before you for this year? What if you could find the strength and the focus to persist toward the most important things that God is calling you to do?
Here it is: Leave behind what weighs you down to reach what God has set in front of you.
If you left the shame, the failures, the heartbreak, the resentment and the sin of 2018 behind you, you would find the strength and the focus to run toward what God is setting before you in 2019.
Hebrews 12:1-4 says it like this:
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.2 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.3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.4 After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin. (NLT)
In the athletic competitions of that day the athletes competed fully in the nude. They did this to run unencumbered by clothing. The author of Hebrews tells us that for “us to run with endurance the race God has set before us” that we are to “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.”
God has set a race before us. There are goals that he wants us to reach in 2019. But to run toward them we must let go of things that weigh us down. The author adds, “especially the sin that so easily trips us up.” What is weighing you down? What is keeping you from moving forward?
This reminds me of a story of how to catch a monkey with a coconut. You drill a hole in the coconut large enough for a monkey to put his hand inside, but not large enough for the monkey to remove his hand if he is grasping something. Then put food, such as rice, inside the coconut and chain the coconut to a tree. A curious monkey will smell the food and will reach inside to clutch the rice; but as he attempts to withdraw his hand it doesn’t fit through the hole, if he is clutching the rice. All that the monkey needs to do is open his hand and let go of the rice and he will be able to withdraw his hand from the coconut. But since the monkey won’t let go of the rice, he’s trapped.
In the same way, if we continue grasping on to the shame, the failures, the heartbreak, the resentment and the sin of 2018 we will be trapped and will not be able to move toward the things that God has set before us.
The author of Hebrews admonishes us to “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.” All that we have to do is let go.
What would happen if you let go of everything that weighed you down? How quickly would you run unencumbered toward the goals that God has set before you? Can you imagine the person that you would become? Can you picture the admiration that your family would have toward you for doing so? All we have to do is let go.
So instead of making resolutions for 2019, choose to leave behind what weighs you down so that you may run unencumbered toward the things that God has set before you.
What do you need to let go of?
