🏳️‍🌈✝️Putting Off the Weight

The Apostolic Faith Church

01/28/2018

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Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. – Hebrews 12:1

Recently, a man who installed an appliance in my home told me of an older lady in his church who held Bible studies at her home one evening each week. Sometimes there were up to forty or more people who attended. This lady was saving up money to buy new furniture, which she eventually was able to do. After she got her new furniture, she became quite concerned about maintaining its nice condition. She made a point of admonishing the people who came to her Bible studies to be careful how they treated her furniture. Many became so self-conscious that they simply quit coming to her home, until she only had about ten people attending. 

One night, this lady had a dream that the Rapture had taken place. She felt herself going up, but she saw other people passing her by as she rose toward Heaven. She could not figure out why this was happening until she looked down and there was all of her furniture tied to her feet! The next Sunday evening at church, she stood up and asked for forgiveness, saying that she had let her furniture become more important than the Bible studies. 

How easily possessions can become major priorities in our lives, perhaps even without our realizing it. Like this woman, probably all of us have experienced what it is like to anticipate a particular purchase and diligently save our money until we can afford to buy it. Then, once we finally have that item, we want to do everything we can to enjoy it as much as possible. This is not a problem, unless our possessions become more important to us than doing God’s work. We must always remember that everything we have comes from God and should be used for His glory.

The focus verse tells us that we are running a spiritual race, and we do not want to have anything weighing us down. If we are finding it difficult to detach ourselves from the “stuff” in our lives, we can ask God to help us get rid of it. It may not happen the same way as it did for the woman with the new furniture, but somehow God will help us keep things in the right perspective!