Monkey-hunters use a box with an opening at the top, big enough for the monkey to slide its hand in. Inside the box are bananas. The monkey grabs the banana and now its hand becomes a fist. The monkey tries to get its hand out but the opening is big enough for the hand to slide in, but too small for the fist to come out. Now the monkey has a choice, either to let go off the banana and be free forever or hang on to the nuts and get caught. Guess what it picks every time? You guessed it. He hangs on to the banana and gets caught.
We are no different from monkeys. We all hang on to some nuts that keep us from going forward in life. We keep rationalizing by saying, “I cannot do this because…†and whatever comes after “because†are the nuts that we are hanging on to which are holding us back.
——————–Â ——————–Â ——————–
To keep moving forward in your christian life, there are 3 things you need to do:
1. We must make proper preparations
A. Consider the saints – the clouds of witnesses serving as our encouragement and challenge to us who have finished their race and have attested of the faithfulness of the Lord God how He kept them, sustained them, and took care of them.
B. Lay aside weights and sins that only hinders you from moving forward in your christian life. These are just like the nuts to which the monkey hangs on to in the above example. Let the Bible help you examine what are these things that should be laid aside.
2. We must have endurance.
Compare the sufferings you have already encountered to that what Jesus have suffered for you and me. Jesus left heaven, lived on earth, held nothing back, went for it all the way to the cross. He who has given his life for you and me so that we may have eternal life. Have you suffered to that degree? That is why we are told to compare our sufferings with His when we feel like giving up. He endured until the end so that we might be saved. Therefore let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
3. We must guard our priorities.
We must see to it that our first priority is always to know Christ and seek Him in our life. Every accomplishments, every single cent of possessions , every business is all but temporal . The fame, the power , the money all vanishes leaving nothing but a sad legacy of an empty life.
