How Can We Run to Win?
First, we are to lift our own beliefs by those who have gone on before us. They should inspire us. Secondly, if you are going to run to win, you have to lay aside what weighs you down.
We read in Hebrews 12:1, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight…” Let us throw off everything that hinders. Have you ever seen a runner run with a mink coat on? Have you seen a runner run with a whole lot of clothes on? That’s not how runners run. How does a runner run? They will strip down to only what is necessary because the runners don’t want anything to hinder them while they are running. The reason why many of us get so tired and frustrated is that we are running with a whole lot of weight. Please note, the weight is not a sin! Weights are not things that are wrong. They are anything that hinders you! Weights can be people. Lay it aside! Weights can be something that someone did to you. Lay it aside!
Weight #1 – Anything that interferes with your purpose
Pastor, how do I know if I am dealing with a weight? Here’s how you know. First, anything that interferes with your purpose is a weight. Anything that the devil sends that hinders you from reaching what God has called you to do is a weight. Some things you don’t need to get involved with. Some people you should not hang around with. And there are some concerns that ought not to come across your table all because they interfere with your purpose.
You only want things in your life that will contribute to what God has called you to. Anything else is nothing but a weight. The one thing I know is that God has called me to preach and to teach! Therefore, anything that interferes with me preaching, teaching and ministering the word and revealing revelation from the word, is nothing more than a weight. I have to lay aside every weight. Trust me, you will look and feel better if you lay aside the weight. You will look thinner if you lay aside the weight.
Weight #2 – Anything that affects your witness
How do I know if I am dealing with a weight? Secondly, anything that affects your witness is a weight. God wants you to be a witness for Him! You can’t be a witness for Him being mean and angry or if you’re stand-offish. You can’t be a witness being so sophisticated that you can’t say Amen! If your education stops you from giving God His praise, that’s a weight. If your academic degrees, BAs, MBAs, PhDs, and EDDs prevent you from honoring God, that’s a weight. It doesn’t matter where you live, what you drive, what you have or where you work because you know if it had not been for the Lord on your side, you don’t know where you would be? The one thing that we all have in common is that the Lord has been better to us than we have been to ourselves.
The Bible says, “O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together.” He inhabits the praises of His people! Now if you don’t believe praise works, then ask Jehoshaphat. Three nations came against Jehoshaphat. So he goes to God and asked the Lord what shall he do? God told Jehoshaphat not to worry. God tells him, “You won’t have to fight this battle because the battle is not yours, it’s the Lord’s.” Since Jehoshaphat believed the battle was the Lord’s, the Bible said he put the singers in front of the army and they went to the enemy line and they started praising God, saying, “Great is the Lord and Greatly to be Praised.” And the more they praised Him, the more the enemy became discombobulated. I believe that when we really praise Him, something is happening someplace else for our good.
Weight #3 – Anything that brings you under its control
Pastor, how do I know if I am dealing with a weight? Thirdly, anything that brings you under its control is a weight. You don’t want anything to control you; not alcohol, not drugs, not medication, not money, not one person, man, or woman, not relationships and not even anyone’s opinion. We could be so much further along if we were not concerned about what other people thought. Who cares? We ought not to be controlled by anyone else’s opinion. God put you in this race! Roll your eyes all you want, but if God is for me who then can be against me? How else do I know if I’m dealing with a weight? Fourthly, anything that doesn’t build me up spiritually is a weight! If it doesn’t build me up spiritually or if it doesn’t help me to become more like Jesus, then that is a weight.
Weight #4 – Anything that trips you up
Listen, we ought to run our race to win. You can run the race when you look at how other believers have won because they had faith. You can win it when you lay aside what weighs you down. Fourthly, you can win the race if you leave behind what trips you up. Notice again what verse 1 says, “Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight. And the sin which doth so easily beset us…” or entangles us. Not only do runners not put on a whole lot of stuff when they are running, but they also make sure that their shoes are tied up! It doesn’t matter how good of a runner you are if your shoes aren’t tied up, it could trip you up and stop you from running your race.
Now if we looked back over our lives, we would have to admit that it’s not always the big stuff that trips us up. Sometimes it’s the little things that trip us up. A whole lot of people in the Bible got tripped up by little things. Noah, in Genesis 9:21, was running his race and built the Ark but he got tripped up by drinking too much. Saul, in 1 Samuel 18:8, was running his race but then he got tripped up by jealousy.
He was jealous because after David killed Goliath, David was getting more praise and compliments than he was. David, in 2 Samuel 11:2, was running his race and he got tripped up by Bathsheba, another man’s wife, bathing on her rooftop. Solomon, in 1 Kings 11:3, was running his race but he got tripped up trying to be a player. He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines; now that’s too many women for any one man!
Guess what? Something trips up every last one of us. I don’t know what trips you up but the devil knows! And the Bible tells us that the minute you think that you can’t get tripped up, that’s the moment that you are on your way to getting tripped up! 1 Corinthian 10:12 says, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest they fall.”
In other words, don’t be so holy that you think you can’t fall because the devil wants to trip you up. He’ll have someone to say something to you and it will trip you up. The devil will have someone to do something to you and it will trip you up. He will send something your way for the sole purpose of tripping you up. We have to make sure our shoes are tied up and our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
We don’t want to get tripped up with the silly stuff! There are somethings that we just have to ignore because God put me in the race and I have to run my race and I want to win. I’m in it to win! If I’m going to win the race, I have to leave behind what trips me up! Avoid letting silly stupid stuff trip me up. Stop letting stupid stuff trip me up. I’m not going to let the devil trip me up with tricks from the past.
The chaplain for Timothy Partners, Ltd., Pastor Anthony E. Moore is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and his lovely wife, First Lady, Cynthia A. Moore a native of Dallas, Texas. Pastor Moore has served Carolina Missionary Baptist Church since 1987 and has been proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ for over thirty years. His latest book is “One Moore Minute” a devotional series. No matter your age, the color of your skin, your circumstance, your economic plight in life, it’s a fact, that through the love of Jesus Christ – you can do all things.
