What Is Entangling You?

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 11)

Let's continue today with our passage found in Hebrews 12: 1-4.  In case you have forgotten the verse, let me remind you:

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin . . .

Taking a closer look at some very important phrases in this text will continue to give us greater insight into what God wants desperately for us to understand.

• "Sin -- missing the true end and scope of our lives, which is God, missing the mark or target that God desires, an offense with emphasis on guilt.

This points to the actions, attitudes, and words that we know are wrong and oppose God's Word.  No further discussion is needed here.  We know what they are!

• Entangles -- The definition of this word points to a picture of a competitor trying to thwart a racer (his competition) from every direction; easily surrounding, and can lead to calamity.

Wasn't that a great picture of what it means to be entangled?  You are trying to run the race of your life, but your competitor, the devil, is doing everything within his power to trip you up from every direction, and entangle you in a web of sin as well.  He doesn't want to just win; he wants to take you out of the race!

If we take what we have learned so far from literal definitions of these few words, we can now crate a new and personal rendering of this verse, one based on the more picturesque language of the Greeks.  Here is what I came up with.

Since I have been shown such great examples of people in the Bible who learned how to walk out their faith, and they now are surrounding me, I choose to get rid of my storehouses of stumbling blocks that have been hindering my walk.  I choose also to put away the things I do and say and think that I know are in direct opposition to God.  These encumbrances and sins are intended by the devil, the competition of my faith-walk, to surround me and cause me to trip so that I will be disqualified from the race.  I now understand that his purpose is to lead me to a race calamity as I continue to sin and fall prey to my encumbering activities.  Today I choose to walk surrounded in the faith of those who have gone before me.

The faithful ones who were listed in the Heroes Hall of Fame are the ones who successfully put their sins and encumbrances behind them while marching on in faith and obedience as those who have been called to this lifestyle by God.  Had they not done this, they would not have been included in God's great list that encourages us today.  They are our examples, and they are our legacy.  Therefore, we should follow suit."

What will your legacy look like for those who are coming up after you?  Is your example the one that you would like them to follow in?  Will Jesus use your example for others?  Will you allow yourself to be cut free from what is holding you back?