Practice It

James 4:¹⁷ “So if you know the right way to live and ignore it, it is sin—plain and simple.” (The Voice)

To finish strong, the first thing that jumps at us from Hebrews 12:1-4 (please read) is, Remember That Heaven Is Watching. Your life has an audience in heaven that is cheering you on. Even though you will receive punches, and sometimes get knocked down. But like the coaches on the side-lines, the crowd of witnesses is cheering you on saying, ‘Get up, slam the opponent down, you can do it!’ Even your loved ones that have gone to be with the Lord are there in the crowd of witnesses cheering you on. I know my grandmother is there cheering me on saying, ‘Come on, don’t give up. I trained you well. I raised you well. You can do it!

The second thing is Eliminate What Doesn’t Matter. The truth is that in life, we have limited resources, limited energy, and limited time. But most times, we have too many things plugged in thereby overloading our sources. Imagine you have a battery bank that charges your phone well. But as you plug your phone into it, ten of your colleagues suddenly come and plug their phones into the same battery bank that is not being recharged. What do you think will happen? It will drain out fast! Hebrews 12:¹ “…let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up…” (emphasis added). A weight is anything that slows you down. Weights are not necessarily wrong, as you know, but they slow you down, nonetheless.

When the Bible talks about sin, our minds quickly go to the things we do. Yes, those are sins that actually do slow us down, and God wants us to get rid of them. But the sin that slows us down that we are not aware of most times, are the things that we know to do and we do not do. To him that knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin (James 4:17). So, what are the things that you know to do, but do not do? Think about it. A lot of things in life are actually not necessary. A lot of things in life are not necessarily wrong, but they are just not necessary and so they become weights. For instance, you can buy a car but is it necessary to buy a car?

Many of us need to learn to not do the things that are not necessary. Just practice it. When you have a decision to make, check if it is absolutely necessary. Use this week to say ‘no’ to the things that are just not necessary. Yes, they are things that you can do, so acknowledge that you can do them. And also acknowledge that they are not necessary. Make this week your ‘say-no-to-the-things-that-are-not-necessary’ week, until it becomes a habit.

Prayer: Father, help me to be more sensitive to the things in my life that are weights and empower me to get rid of such weights permanently, in Jesus Mighty Name. Amen!