Suppose for the sake of illustration that we have a large tumor growing on our back. It’s the size of a basketball. And it makes it impossible for us to stand up straight or walk right. It makes it very difficult for us to sleep at night, and overall it drags us down in life. Basically, we’re miserable with it growing on our back, but we don’t know how to get rid of it. We look everywhere for some way to remove this from our back, but we find no help. Then, we hear about a specialist who will remove the tumor and make our life 100% better. He’s even offered to pay for the price to remove it. So, we go to this specialist and he removes the tumor, and we’re amazed at how happy we are to finally have that tumor gone.
However, after a couple of weeks, we go back to the hospital and ask, “Excuse me, do you still have that tumor that was removed from my back? Can I have it? I want to carry it around with me and have some fun with it. Yes, I was miserable when it was on my back, but at least I had something to occupy my time and something to worry about.”
Well, you say, “That would make NO SENSE!” And you would be correct. Why would we want to go back to carrying around that old gross tumor that was removed from our back? Yet, that is EXACTLY what a lot of people do with their lives.
They like everyone else in the world are bogged down with sin, with the cares of this life and this world, and with the problems and stresses of daily life. They are miserable, and have not a hope in the world of getting these burdens removed from their life. BUT THEN – Jesus comes and has paid the price to remove the burdens, all we have to do is accept Him as our Savior. So, we take Him at His offer and give Him our life. However, after a little while, when maybe things aren’t going as fast in the new direction as we want, or when everything is not working out exactly to OUR plan, we go back to this world of sin, stresses, and burdens and pick up our old life – and carry on doing what we were doing before. Well NO WONDER we’re miserable.
Paul wrote in Romans 6, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? MAY IT NEVER BE! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” Yet, that is exactly what many people who claim to be Christians do. They think it’s perfectly fine to continue doing what the Bible says is wrong. They’re carrying around the weight that was removed when they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, and they wonder why life is not going well for them.
We can not truly have fellowship with God while we’re still bogged down with the weight of sin and of this world. We HAVE to seek after God with ALL of our hearts and forsake this old wicked world and it’s sinful pleasures. I realize that’s not a popular topic with most people – they don’t want to give up any more than they have to, and they seem to want to continue carrying around the weights and sins that drag on their life and slow them down.
Remember what the writer said in Hebrews 12:1-3, “…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.”
Notice the process – 1. Get rid of the entanglements and encumbrances in your life, and 2. Fix your eyes on JESUS!
It doesn’t say “glancing occasionally at Jesus.” It says FIXING your eyes on Jesus! NOTHING else in this world matters more than Him!