Devotion: Wiggling Your Spiritual Tires

Wiggling Your Spiritual Tires

by Marsha Iddings

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

The writer of Hebrews tells us to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us and run the race with patience that is set before us. A good illustration of laying aside every weight would be in the NASCAR races. When there has been an accident or debris on the road the drivers are then put under the yellow caution flag. They then have to follow behind a pace car until the problem is fixed. As they drive behind the pace car you'll find them weaving back and forth on the track. This is called wiggling the tires. They wiggle their tires to remove all the debris that gets stuck in them. They need to get as much of that stuff off the tires as they can so when they get a green flag their tires will grip the road and they can really get moving fast.

Here the writer of Hebrews tells us we need to get all the debris out of our spiritual tires that would slow us down and make us lose our grip in the race of life. There are many things that are weights that slow us down and cause us to lose our grip. Among them are anger, worry, fear, and self pity. If we allow these things to accumulate in our lives they will slow us down spiritually. These things stem from a lack of trust in God's sovereignty over our lives. When we are angry or wallowing in self pity it's because we don't feel like we got what we thought we deserved. Fear and worry are similar in that we feel like the situation isn't being taken care of the way it should be, so we are fearful of what the outcome might be and we fret over it.

The antidote to anger, worry, fear, and self pity is to think on good things and learn to be thankful. Philippians 4: 8 says, 'Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.' Colossians 3:15 tells us, 'And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.'

Do you need to wiggle your spiritual tires today and remove some debris from them? Began today to replace those negative thoughts with the positive truth of Scripture and begin to give thanks for these things.

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