Day 3 - Identify The Weights

We're going deeper on "Dumping the Past" and how it requires forgiveness.

Forgiving Yourself

The inability to forgive one's self is one of the big reasons that many Christians become stuck in the past.

As I was studying this, the Lord began to deal with me to “slow down” and He began to uncover more truth about this issue. (So prepare, we may be on this for a few days.)

Today’s scripture is Hebrews 12:1 NKJV
“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,”

Today’s word is WEIGHTS

We need to spend some time with the Holy Spirit and identify the weights that we have been carrying around that have us stuck in the past.

From this scripture in Hebrews, the Apostle Paul was aware that he was running a race. His goal was to run his best and make it to the finish line. We are in that same spiritual race, and our goal is to run our best and make it to the finish line.

Part of our race is the year that we just began, 2025.

We can look at this new year as one "leg" in the race that we are running. Each year is a new leg or a new segment.

How do we run better this year than last year? How do we run our very best?

Let’s consider long distance running for a minute. Most elite runners that run a marathon and win have very little body fat…like between 5 and 10%. The average body fat percentage for men in America is 28.6%! (quite a bit of difference)

 A runner's weight goal is to be lean so that you can run faster and further. You don’t want any extra weight holding you back or slowing you down.
   
Our scripture for today uses the phrase "weights and sins".

We know what sin is. It is anything that is against the will and word of God. When we disobey God’s word we are in sin. We need to repent according to John 1:9.

It is obvious that sin will take you off of God’s course for your life.

So, what about weights? What are the weights referring to?

These are things that may be "good" but may not be from God.

This is how Eve was tempted with the fruit from the wrong tree (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). It was good to eat. It wasn’t going to kill her physically but it wasn’t the fruit from the tree of Life. And when she and Adam did eat it they went off of the path that God had for them.

Things that were your idea and not God’s idea at all could be the weights that we carry around.

Here are some practical examples of what sins and weights could be:

• Addictions
• Bad attitude at work
• Unforgiveness
• Broken relationships
• Broken promises
• Hurt feelings
• Offense from someone getting promoted before you
• Negative words that you have spoken against yourself
• Over committing yourself in some area
• Debt from over spending
• Physical weight from overeating
• etc.

The Holy Spirit knows exactly what has been weighting you down and trying to stop you or steer you off course.

Here is some homework for us to do.

Take some time over the next couple of days and make a list on a piece of paper of things in your past that you would consider weights and sin. It might take you a while for the Holy Spirit to reveal certain things to you.

Next, take some scissors and cut each item on that list onto a separate slip. Take each slip and read it off as you put it in a small box. PRAY and give it to God!

Dispose of the weights and sin by burning the box in your charcoal grill in the backyard or crushing it and putting it in the trash bin. This is a physical exercise to help you forgive yourself and put all of the past under the blood of Jesus!

Let's set aside all that is trying to hold us back from running to win in 2025