Is Your Christian Race Getting Hard to Run?
By Eric Mattie
Eric preaches, teaches and serves as a lay elder in his local church and writes regularly at For1Glory.com. He and his wife Melanie live in La Crosse, Wisconsin and have three adult children.
In the manufacturing company I work for I’ve tried running across the plant, arms full of parts to get to our shipping area before the end of the day deadline. It’s roughly two hundred yards. The length of two football fields. Or is it?
Perhaps I only felt it was that long, running with heavy parts.
Well, either way, I stop running midway through. I simply wasn’t going to make it without collapsing.
That is what I think about when I read Hebrews 12:1 “… let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” We can ask of this passage “Is every weight and every sin different or the same thing?” “what is every weight?” “Is sin the weight?”. While all decent questions I think the wiser approach to thinking about applying this passage is revealed in Karl Clauson’s new book Killing Sin when he says:
We all have at least one thing hurting us, shaming us, or holding us back… That one thing is a problem. It stares at you and shames you until you look away or do something about it. Unaddressed, that one thing will diminish us, devastate those around us, or destroy us altogether. And when that one thing persists, it becomes a breeding ground for more things to build up—compromise, denial, and defeat—as we fall under a pile of shameWe all have at least one thing hurting us, shaming us, or holding us back… That one thing is a problem. It stares at you and shames you until you look away or do something about it. Unaddressed, that one thing will diminish us, devastate those around us, or destroy us altogether. And when that one thing persists, it becomes a breeding ground for more things to build up—compromise, denial, and defeat—as we fall under a pile of shame
Living the Christian life with such an “unaddressed” burden, can cause a struggle in even the simplest Christian disciplines of personal devotions, going to corporate worship and growing in close friendships with other believers.
The weight of shame or the carrying of unconfessed, unconfronted sin will stop you running the race God has for you.
In Karl’s new book he challenges us to identify the one thing that stops us from running the Christian life. The rest of the book empowers us as readers to boldly address it under the power of the Word and Holy Spirit
If weights and sins are slowing you down in your Christian life, start by remembering that today is a day of new strength amid your weakness. (Read 2 Corinthians 12:9,10). Then grab a copy of Killing Sin to begin to address and unburden your heart, soul and mind with truth and encouragement daily.
You can purchase your copy of Karl’s new book, Killing Sin: Conquer the One Thing That Is Defeating You, right here.
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