What’s Hindering You?

The Apostle Paul says the Christian life is a race to be run and won.

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” (1 Corinthians 9:24)

He then tells of the need to discipline ourselves so that we don’t become disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:27)

How can we do this? By obeying the truth.

To the church in Galatia Paul said, “You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” (Galatians 5:7)

The Galatians believed in Jesus Christ, lived for Him, worshipped and served Him with zeal, and were living what they professed. But then some false teachers stepped in and began to hinder their forward progress. In fact, they turned them around so much that they started to run back towards the law rather than forward toward grace.

And so Paul asked them to identify what hindered them from obedience to the gospel of Christ.

The word, “hinder,” means to interfere and obstruct. Therefore to us the question is, “What’s hindering us from running the Christian race well?”

The writer of Hebrews gives us the clue.

“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, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1)

Notice it’s not only sin that hinders, but also those things, “weights,” that aren’t sin nor are they necessarily bad, but weigh us down nonetheless.

Exactly what these hindrances are is unique to each and every one of us. And on the surface they are good things, but they are not the best, and that’s because they keep us from fulfilling the mission and calling of Jesus upon our lives.

Let us therefore take the writer of Hebrews advice and keep “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2a)