Friday, February 24, 2017

February 24 Thought for the day....making the change


I love to read, I love to be challenged in my thinking but there are times when I have felt OK but the Lord has brought some conviction into my life. He brings it because there are things I am not seeing that will hinder me from fulfilling my destiny and my dreams. Generally, even though I know His challenge is good for me, it is hard to make the change. Hebrews shows us the answer to making the change.

Hebrews 12:1a

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance"

It is hard when we are comfortable to make changes. We love comfort. We love settling into things. We love coming to a place and believing we have arrived. As long as you are a Christ-follower and want to fulfill His call, He will constantly challenge you to grow to become more like Him. Guess what? It will take growth and change including laying things down. The writer of Hebrews is telling us to do exactly that!

The word for "lay aside" is made up of two Greek words that combine mean to lay something down and push it far away. There are things in our lives that hinder our growth, our destiny and ultimately the fulfillment of our love, peace, joy, and dreams. We must choose to lay it down and push it far away. God shows us His plan, correction, discipline, hope, or dream and to allow these in our lives we must choose to lay it down and push it away.

These are the "encumbrances" in our lives the weights that hold us back from God's greatness for us. The word that is used here leans toward the idea of an athlete who strips down to run a race. The writer is saying there are things that are part of us that we must tear away. A runner would go so far as to change diet to drop weight in order to win the race.

This verse could be translated, let us lay down and push aside everything in our lives working to eliminate anything that would stop us from the joy, peace, dream and destiny God has planned for us. There is always a cost. It is uncomfortable but as the great cloud of witnesses testifies, it will be worth the change!

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