January 27 Thought for the day....changing your environment

Before we came to Christ, we were all surrounded by some kind of environment. It could have been fear of tomorrow. It could have been anger. It probably was selfishness to some extent. To go back into to any of those environments would be detrimental to our health and spirit. Environment affects us. Let me give you a very practical example if you have just stopped smoking, revisiting places where you would often smoke, or being around smokers, will trigger the need to surrender to your environment. It is the same with fear, anger, selfishness and all of the things that kept us in bondage.

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us" Hebrews 12:1

In this scripture, we are challenged to think about our environment, here is what I mean.  When we come to Christ our environment has been changed. We have gone from an environment of fear, anger, selfishness, doubt, sin to an environment of faith. We are now in the environment of a great multitude of men and women who have shown us the way to overcome in every situation. We have a hall of heroes of faith that are now our challenge to live up to. Our environment is charged with people whose lives show us their failures and their overcoming faith. How can we live there?

The writer answers that question by saying, "lay aside every weight that so easily ensnares us". The idea presented from the Greek is this. The first part of the phrase is saying, something that feels very comfortable, a former environment of sin or mediocrity. The second part is the idea of being surrounded (in that environment). To put it together the meaning is, don't allow something that you have been comfortable in, surround you. The last part is to "bind" or "imprison you".

We have been made new in Christ, the old is passed away. It is comfortable to go back to those places where we were formerly limited or that held us in bondage. Instead, we are to remember that we are now among those witnesses, those great men and women, who changed the world and as we walk in that environment, we are now free and we too will change our world.