Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 327 · November 23
Every Weight
“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,”
Picture a runner at the starting line, emptying his pockets. His keys, coins and phone all come out. None of them is wrong to own, but none of them is coming with him on the race.
Today's verse names two things that have to come off, and only one of them is sin: "let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us." The Greek word for weight means bulk, the load you happen to be carrying, so a thing can be perfectly allowed and still be extra baggage. The "cloud of witnesses" are the people of chapter eleven, and the end of that chapter tells how their race finished: "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise." They ran without seeing the finish, and they emptied their pockets anyway. And the One they trusted is the One you run toward, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith."
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 327 is Christ Dwelling Within (Ephesians 3:17).