If you’ve ever watched a baseball game and studied the batter who is waiting to bat, you’ll notice that they slide a weighted collar over the bat as they take several practice swings. However, they do not step up to the plate with that collar on the bat; they take it off when it is time to compete.

Hebrews 12:1 talks about the need for the believer to “…lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us;” The weights are things in life that are not necessarily bad. These might even be things that helped you at one point, but now they are hindering your progress or keeping you from serving the Lord. This might be a career or education. A winning athlete does not choose between good and bad; he chooses between better and best.

Don’t ever look at laying aside a weight as “giving up something.” You are not giving up anything; in fact, you are gaining. God isn’t going to cheat you. He’s going to replace what you thought was so important with something greater. You are wrong if you think that laying something aside for God is going to make you miserable. God is not a taker, He is a giver. He wants to bring you blessings, joy and happiness. Whatever it is that you lay aside for God, it is a glorious thing because something greater is going to happen.