Do you ever feel like something is hindering your relationship with God, you can’t quite put your finger on it but something is holding you back? Well the bible speaks of two things that hold us back in our relationship with the Lord.

Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

There are two things that keep you from being all that God wants you to be. There are two things that limit your potential in life. One of them is “sins” and the other is “weights”. You know what sins are…breaking one of the commandments of God. Sin holds us back and habitual sin can break fellowship with the Lord. We need to breathe spiritually, confess our sin, repent, and surrender control of our life and appropriate the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

The second thing that holds us back is “everything that hinders.” The word hinders translates into the word weight, but what’s a “weight”? Well, a weight is something that’s not necessarily wrong; it’s just not necessary. There’re some things in life that are not necessarily wrong; they’re just not necessary. A weight can be all kinds of things. It could be a relationship, it could be an expectation, it could be an activity, it could be a club, it could be old friends, television, it could be a memory that you refuse to let go of, it could be a fear, it could be a job. There are thousands of kinds of weights. And the Bible says, “to grow, I must learn to say no”. You can’t say, “Yes” to everything. You have to say “no” to some things. You have to say “no” often to good things in order to have time for the best things. You have to say “no” to things that are not bad. In fact, they’re good, but you say “no” to them because you cannot do it all and have it all. Perhaps the number one myth today that our culture promotes is you can do it all and you can have it all. Not true, you can’t do it all and you can’t have it all. As Christians we give it all to God.

If you’re serious about your relationship with God, you have to make space for Him in your life. And if you’re going to make space for God in your life, you’re going to have to cut some stuff out. Some good stuff, not sin, just good stuff…there is always a cost in making God first in your life, but the rewards are worth it. Matthew 6:33-34, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Surfing the net, cell phones, 24 hour news, entertainment, sports, hobbies, work, school, our to do lists, etc. can fill our schedule. These things are not bad…all of those things are good. In fact, God created them. And God approves of every one of those things, except in first place. God says, “I want to be No. 1 in your life before everything else, “Seek first the kingdom of God”…and I’ll take care of everything else.

Do tasks on your to-do list distract you from focusing on God? Is your life so busy, you don’t have time to serve the Lord…> stop to have a quiet time, time to pray and focus on God? Is your life so full of weights, things that hinder you from being all that God wants you to be? Are there weights limiting your potential to fully serv> e the Lord? Are there things in your life that are not necessarily wrong; they’re just not necessary…and these weights are keeping you from focusing on the Lord? I leave you with a few exhorting verses:

1 Timothy 4:7-8, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

 II Corinthians 5:15, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

Luke 14:33, “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

God Bless, Pastor Alex Garcia