The army of Alexander the Great was advancing on Persia. At a point, it seemed that his troops might be defeated. The soldiers had taken much plunder from their previous campaigns that they had become weighted down and were losing their effectiveness in combat. Alexander the Great then gave an instruction that all the spoils be thrown into a heap and burned. The men complained bitterly but soon came to see the wisdom of the order. Someone wrote, “It was as if wings had been given to them – they walked lightly again”. Victory was assured - F B Meyer. Our daily work
The short story above is filled with wisdom that every Christian should learn from. Of course, at first it would have looked like an irrecoverable loss to burn the spoils that the army had bravely fought for, but Alexander the Great knew that to lose his soldiers would be a greater loss.
Most of us as Christians are holding on to some things that we feel are precious, while we have almost completely missed the road to heaven. As Christians, we need to realize that our soul is most precious than anything in this vain world.
Why must we cut unnecessary burdens/weights?
i The Christian life is a Journey. It is a known fact that, every traveller wants to get to his/her destination safely. For the christian life, the destination is Heaven. On the heavenly journey, burdens/weights impedes us as Christians. This is because, the burdens would hold us down and prevent us from pleasing God. Therefore, it is needful for us as Christians to cut off every burdens, so we can please God.
ii. The Bible explicitly tells us that the road to heaven is narrow. Imagine carrying a big load on a narrow road, there is no way the narrow road would contain you and your big bag. In Matthew 7:14, we see that the road is straight and narrow, hence we need to cut unnecessary burdens/weights to be able to pass the narrow road.
Some unnecessary burdens/weights includes:
Burdening ourselves with cares and worries of this life is a weight that affect us in the journey to heaven. Remember the instruction from God that says we should cast our cares on Him for He cares for us? (1Peter 5:7).
Holding on to past failures, past sins, past disappointments is also a weight. Paul the Apostle was determined to forget those things that were behind him, while focusing on the future (Phillipians 3:13-14). This is one of the secrets of his life, that enabled him to declare at the end of his life that he has fought a good fight of faith, finished his course and kept the faith.Fashion and worldly pleasures is a weight that burdens Christian in the journey to heaven. Quick check, have you ever seen Usain Bolt wear a suit to run? Alas, I have never seen him do that, this is because, as an athlete, you need to be light in order to run fast to win the race. Also, do you see Usain Bolt striking up a conversation while running? No, because he doesn’t want to be distracted. As Christians, we should not be distracted by any means from arriving at our final destination, which is heaven.
Some of us Christians are so concerned with genuine services, like meeting other people’s physical and/or spiritual needs that we neglect our own souls. In Luke 10:41-42, Jesus identified this in the life of Martha and cried out.
Conclusion:
As Christians, there are many weights in our life that have been put there to burden us on our journey to heaven, but we must be weary and avoid them and continue on our journey to heaven while travelling light.
- We must be focused and certain about the heavenly race just like Paul was. 1 Corinthians 9:26
- We must also run the heavenly race by faith. Hebrews 11 shows saints that did a lot through faith, pleased God and won the heavenly race.
- We must endure and have patience. Our Lord Jesus Christ set an example by enduring the betrayal from Judas Iscariot, denial by Peter, false accusation from the Pharisees, etc. Hence we should endure and have patience as Christains
- Finally, we should look unto Jesus and press forward on our heavenly Journey. He is the author and finisher of our faith.
May God help us all in our heavenly race.