Hindrances

Author: Joseph

Date: October 8, 2023

How far are you willing to go to ensure that you are not living with temptations caused by your own doing? Certainly in the world we live in we will face many temptations during life, but what about the things that you have the ability to make changes in? Of course, nothing is possible without God’s strength, and He provides the strength to us through our faith in Him. With faith, we can make changes in our life that remove many temptations from us.

Yeshua spoke to His disciples, telling them, “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; if is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire” (Matthew 18:8). Yeshua was emphasizing the fact that if anything becomes a hindrance to walking righteously in faith, then it should be removed. Yes, even so far as removing a limb from your body. This is both literal and a hyperbole. Of course if the only thing stopping a man from entering the kingdom of God is the hand of his body, then it would really be better to cut if off and cast it away if this was the only way possible to remove the temptation to sin. We should be willing to follow through with any measure of self-denial if it meant in the end we would pull ourselves away from damnation into the eternal fires of hell. Even the extent of losing part of our own body. Should it have to come to that conclusion? I would hope certainly not, but we must be willing to remove anything that hinders us from walking righteously in faith to God.

"...remove anything that hinders..."

What is outright sinful is no question to whether it should be removed or not. These things must be removed, repented from, and abandoned permanently. This takes discernment of course because what appears to have no effect on us spiritually may actually be the things causing the most damage to our faith and walk with God. This could be something as simple as being distracted by entertainment of sorts, whether it be music, television, movies, books. These seemingly harmless and abundantly available things could keep us from the very moments of time that God is asking us to pray and seek Him. Thereby we drift slowly away from a daily walk to God, then to perhaps only a weekly church service, but even then our mind is occupied with the things that we have indulged in instead of seeking God in our moments of rest. Eventually God becomes unimportant or even unattractive because what we have occupied ourselves with has now become a stumbling block whose temptations are now routine and built into our daily lives. When people reach this level of indulgence that they cannot even recognize it, they are even offended at any criticism of the choices they are making that others may so clearly see and lovingly be trying to help them. Let this not become you. Though if this sounds familiar to your own circumstances, you may want to take this time to now reflect on your life and repent from what has driven you away from God.

The cost of stumbling is high. It is not like merely tripping over a rock in the middle of a path. No. It is like stumbling over the edge of a cliff with a parachute and the longer you wait to react, the more deadly the outcome becomes – and it comes faster than most expect.

For some, the stumbling block in their lives may be a friendship with someone who is not a believer, and the relationship doesn’t seem to pull away from their faith, but the longer the friendship lasts without any sort of witnessing to the other person, the one who does know the truth begins to slip away from it and occupy their time with things that are ungodly and fruitless. If the relationship doesn’t come to an end, it does eventually pull the believer away from God. I’m not speaking of a friendship with healthy boundaries and a motivation to witness the Good News, but rather a friendship in which the believer is comfortable and content with having no Godly influence on the other and they have made no sincere efforts to witness the Good News that brings their friend to salvation. This kind of friendship is friendship with the world and we are to have no part in it (James 4:4). Yeshua continues in His warning to the disciples, telling them that if their eyes cause them to stumble, these two should be plucked out. Can you imagine going from seeing the world around you just as you do now to seeing nothing at all in a moment? Surely that is what the apostle Saul experienced on his way to Damascus when Yeshua blinded him (Acts 22:6-16). This experience changed his life forever as he received salvation from God because of it. Without his eyesight, Saul could hear the voice of God clearly as He spoke to Saul. Yeshua wasn’t kidding when He said it is better to lose your eyes than to be cast away into fiery hell. Saul was blessed to regain his eyesight to become an apostle for God. If God so pleases, the thing that He takes away to get your attention may be returned, but cleansed by His renewed purpose for you. Just as when we offer our time that we used to spend on meaningless entertainment and suddenly we find ourselves with more enjoyable time well spent in prayer and reading His Word. Or perhaps that friendship we gave us because it was harmful to our walk with God suddenly opened us to befriend other believers and strengthen our faith, enabling us to reach out to non-believers effectively, perhaps even to the non-believing friend that we had to separate ourselves from.

But rather than simply seeking to receive because we gave, just as Yeshua speaks of the limb being removed permanently, we have to be willing to (and follow through with) casting away the things that cause us to stumble with no expectation of receiving them back and not seeking to have them again. In fact, it is better to consider them altogether abandoned for the better – for the salvation of our souls.

Cutting off a hand or foot to avoid stumbling is the last thing we want, but to this extent we should be willing to give up our own bodies to God. Yeshua did for all of us when He was crucified upon the cross. He expects us to follow Him and asks us to do the same (Matthew 16:24). Cast away the stumbling blocks, take up your cross, and follow Him even to death. When we give up our lives for Him, we find our lives saved in Him. What stumbling blocks do you have in your life? What seemingly “innocent” things are occupying your time and focus? Don’t hold onto anything more than you hold onto God. Be willing and follow through with casting anything away that is a hindrance to living righteously in faith to God.

Matthew 18:8-9

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org