Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
In Hebrews 12:1, Paul mentions two things that keep us from running after God and the call He placed on our lives:
- Everything that hinders
- The sin that so easily entangles
We tend to lump these two things together – seeing everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles as two ways to say the same thing.
Sin does hinder us.
And we are hindered by sin.
Same concept. Different wording.
But Paul wasn’t just being flowery with his choice of words in this verse. He wasn’t just restating the same concept twice to gain attention.
Everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles referred to two different ideas.
Most of us aren’t going to be taken out by a major sin.
We aren’t going to commit adultery, embezzle millions of dollars through our jobs, murder someone in blind rage, ruin our marriage through an addiction to porn, become drug addicts, or any number of other life-crippling sins.
It might not even be sin that takes us out, at least in the concept of sin we have in our heads.
What hinders most of us from pursuing God and the call He has on our lives are the little things. Tweet this
Spending hours a day on Facebook.
Watching TV all evening.
Staying glued to our phones all day.
Blaming others for our conditions.
Hanging around with people who constantly put us down.
Believing the lies about ourselves running around in our heads.
Filling our days with activities to keep ourselves busy.
Netflix.
Video games.
Hulu Plus.
The enemy knows the right distractions to place in our lives to keep up from chasing after God.
Not sin.
Not life-destroying decisions.
Distractions.
That is how most of us stop pursuing God and the call He has placed on our lives. Tweet this
We get too busy with our favorite TV shows to read the Bible.
Volunteer our time and are too busy to pray.
Try to level up in the latest mobile game to build real community.
Complain about our work, family, finances and never start pursuing our call.
Paul tells us whatever the hindrance, we need to throw it off.
Not just some cheap resolution to try better, not advice to get an accountability partner, nor a suggestion to try your hardest not to give in.
This was a command to quickly and thoroughly remove anything and everything that hinders from your life.
Sell the TV.
Downgrade the phone.
Clear up the schedule.
Cancel Netflix, Hulu, Xbox Live.
Cut the relationship.
Whatever you need to do in order to throw everything that hinders out of your life.
It may seem extreme, but the alternative is worse.
Never living up to all God created you to be.
What hindrance do you need to throw out of your life? Leave a comment below.
[Background photo: Farrukh cc]