Besetting sin

Besetting sin

“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,” (Heb. 12:1)

Maybe I should call this “Losing weight” because that is exactly what the apostle seems to be referring to here. Anyone who has lost a lot of weight knows how hard it can be to shed those pounds, and to keep them off. It takes a change in lifestyle; in eating habits; in exercising; and a lot of moxie and determination. Shedding those pounds does not come easily. Shedding those weights which so easily beset us in life can be just as hard, and maybe more so. These would, for many of us make the weight loss of the flesh as child’s play in comparison, and yet they are necessary to a healthy and happy spiritual life. Just as excess weight slows one down in the flesh, our spirits also need to be “cleaned up” and perked up by shedding the excess baggage we clutter our lives with. Though not all excess is sin, it is good to lay it aside and continue the race for the prize of the high calling of Christ.
Though we carry some baggage that is not necessarily sinful, we have some sins that we cling to, and will not let go of. They have grown on us, and become a part of us, and it is like losing weight to give them up, but those are the sins we must deal with before they consume us altogether. An obese spirit does not mean that we are more spiritual, on the contrary, it means we are lax in the care of excess baggage! Even as “spiritual beings” we can be so deeply rooted in the soils of earth that one could hardly tell us from the world; therefore, our testimony at least, is at stake, but even those hidden sins that are not seen by mortal eye need to be dealt with one by one. Are we up to it? I hope so. I would like to think that we all are able to exercise Jesus in our lives enough to shed the unwanted pounds of sin.