Fueling Our Unbelief

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We talked about the work of the believer--believing--in the last blog post.  Believing is hard work, is it not?!  It seems so straightforward and simple really, but we all struggle at some level believing who we are and who God says He is, even on a daily, or moment-to-moment, basis.

Today I wanted to talk a bit about the ways we fuel our unbelief.  Now, I am convinced that many times we do this unintentionally and unawares; however, if we are truly honest with ourselves, there are many times we do choose to cling to sin and to lies, and we fuel our unbelief in God and His promises (or at least we try to manage our sin and make it work for us).  Why do we do this?  Well, part of it is our fleshly nature; part of it is because, apart from the Holy Spirit's working in our hearts, we are hopelessly deceived and ignorant.  Whatever the reason, we need to wake up to the things that fuel our unbelief.

The writer of Hebrews talks about these things at the very start of the twelfth chapter:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 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,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (v. 1-2)

The metaphor comparing the running of a race to the life of a Christian is used in several places throughout the New Testament, especially in Paul's epistles.  In this passage, what are some of the things that equip the runner to run well (aka, the Christian to live well)? 

• realizing they are not alone
• laying aside every weight
• laying aside sin 
• running with endurance
• looking to Jesus

A few interesting things pop off the page to me as I read this passage.  First, this entire process of running the race, or living the Christian life, and doing it well, is accomplished only in the context of community.  We see that right out of the gate: "since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses."  We must go back a chapter, to Hebrews chapter 11 to see who these "witnesses" are: they are the faith-filled God followers that lived by faith and not by sight, who were persecuted and yet stood firm and were even martyred.  Our modern-day churches are filled with these witnesses, and so we must grow and live and flourish within the community of our churches.  As it has been said before: there are no Lone Ranger Christians!

Second, scripture tells us that we must lay aside EVERY weight and sin.  It is interesting to me that weights and sins are listed separately.  While it could be argued that sin does weigh us down, apparently other things do, too; even morally good or morally neutral things can be weights in our lives!  What are some of these weights?  Let me offer a few: being too busy, fear (although some fears can be sinful), distractions, family (one of the reasons Paul encourages the single life, if possible) and countless others.  I think weights can look differently to different people, so we ought to be prayerful as we come before God, asking Him to reveal to us the weights in our lives from which we need to be freed.  I also find it interesting how sin is described in this passage: "sin which clings so closely."  As we've discussed before, sin dwells within us in our flesh and is inescapable this side of Heaven.  (It is imperative to note, however, that while sin is present, it no longer wields its power over us as Christians).  I'd encourage you and I to prayerfully ask the Lord to reveal to us any sin in our lives so that we can confess it, repent of it, and lay it aside.

Third, running with endurance is running to serve, and serve well.  In order to not repeat myself, I will refer you to this post about this particular point.

Lastly, we run and look to Christ Himself, who established for us an example by enduring the cross for the joy of Heaven that was set before Him.  Again, we talked about fixing our eyes on Him in this post so I'd encourage you to check that one out, as well.  I firmly believe that "looking to Jesus" involves knowing God's Word, too, so check out this post as time allows.

So, how exactly do we do this--how do we lay aside our weights and sins and run with endurance, looking to Jesus?  Well, the good news is that we are not alone--the Holy Spirit helps us!!

How does the Holy Spirit help us?

He teaches us God's truth (John 14:26)
He reminds of us who we are in Christ (John 14:26)
He gives us the words to pray, when we are unable to pray (Romans 8:26)
He empowers us, comforts us, and seals us with Christ (Acts 9:31, Ephesians 1:13)

I love how the missionary and teacher Barbara Bancroft put it: "The Holy Spirit reminds us everyday that we stand in a gracious place."

Oh, how I pray that the Spirit would remind you, and me, of all these things today, dear one, as He strengthens and equips us to lay aside every weight and sin and run the race God has called us to!