Ye did run well: you were keeping to the course, you were making steady progress.
You were putting forth a reasonable amount of effort, This wording is used to describe a persons career or life work: Paul is saying, At one time you had taken this to be your lifes work, your goal, your ambition, That which was worthy of your best efforts.
Gal 5:7
who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
HINDER, "to cut into" was used of "impeding" persons by breaking up the road, or by placing an obstacle sharply in the path; hence, metaphorically, of "detaining" a person unnecessarily,
For the Galatians, it was the Judaizers, who were trying to persuade them to go back to the works of the law, or the flesh, they were mixing law works with grace.
The danger of this is, that when one believes his righteousness with God is attained by his works, he is fallen from Grace, which brought salvation apart from any works of the flesh.
Worldly allurements Hindered the escape of Lot’s wife
# Ge 19:26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Worldly possessions Hindered the rich young man from discipleship
#Mt.19:22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
Natural earthly concerns robbed martha of the presence of Jesus.
Luke 10:40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving,
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
Cumbered:
to drag all around, i.e. (figuratively) to distract (with care):
be driven about mentally, (b) to be over-occupied, too busy, about a thing
Mark 4:19
19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
Weights, as well as sins, impede progress:
Heb 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,
Weight= a mass (as bending or bulging by its load), i.e. burden (hindrance): whatever is prominent, a protuberance, a bulk, a mass;
hence, a burden, a weight, an encumbrance
Ye did run well, who or what hath hindered you? What have you allowed to break, your stride? What or who have you allowed to come between you and the lord,? What has caused you to feel as though you no longer need to give 100%
What weights are you tolerating in your life? What excesses of the flesh have you given your permission to?
What unchristian feelings or attitudes have you given place to and allowed to harbor in your heart?
(Pride) (anger) (resentment) (self pity) (indifference) lukewarmness?
Sometimes storms come into our lives, not always as it were from the devil to destroy us, some storms are allowed by God to save us, to deliver us from the things that are holding us back, and breaking our stride, and distracting us from the goal.
Example:
Acts 27:18-19 Paul the apostle is In the midst of a Great storm.
18 And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship;
19 And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship. (The furniture, the utensils).
The bible says everything that can be shaken will be shaken and only those things that cannot be shaken will remain.
Sometimes it takes a storm to show us what is unnecessary in our lives, sometimes the things that we are the most proud of are the first things to go in the middle of the storm.
Sometimes we need to lighten the ship, (sometimes we allow our hearts to pick up excess baggage and we need to lighten the ship but it’s not until we feel that it is a matter of life or death that we actually take the initiative and get rid of it).
Sometimes the storm comes to reveal the enemies of your destiny.
If you feel like you’re going through a storm, it may be time to lighten the ship.
Who hath hindered you?
What has hindered you?
There are things in this life that at times slow us down, and some of these things we have no control over.
But there are other things that hinder our progress in God that are things that we simply allow and we must choose to lay them aside and get back to running this race with a 100% commitment.
