Scripture: Galatians 5:7
“Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” — Galatians 5:7
Have you ever looked at your life and wondered, How did I get here?
Not because you never had potential. Not because God never had a plan. Not because you didn’t start strong.
But because somewhere along the journey, something got in your way.
The Apostle Paul asked a question that still echoes through the lives of believers today:
Notice what Paul didn’t ask. He didn’t ask if they had started well. He already knew they had. He didn’t ask if they had potential. He already knew they did.
He asked, “Who hindered you?”
In other words, what happened between the strong start and the current struggle?
Years ago, I was sitting in the stands at a track meet watching a race.
Now, let me be clear. I said I was at the track meet. I didn’t say I was running in the track meet.
There was one young man everybody expected to win. He was gifted. He was fast. He had trained hard. Before the race ever started, everyone knew he was the favorite.
But there was something unusual about him.
He was wearing a backpack.
When the race started, it didn’t seem to matter. He exploded off the line and quickly took the lead. For a while, his natural ability carried him.
But halfway through the race, the weight began to catch up with him.
One runner passed him. Then another. Then another.
By the time he reached the finish line, he was struggling just to get across it.
As I watched, a question settled in my spirit:
What are you carrying that God never intended for you to carry?
What weight are you dragging through life?
What is hindering you?
The first thing that hinders many believers is the weight of yesterday.
Paul writes in Philippians 3:13:
“Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.”
Paul is not talking about amnesia. He is not saying pretend it never happened.
He is saying don’t allow yesterday to control tomorrow.
Think about who is writing these words. This is the same Paul who persecuted Christians. The same Paul who approved of their deaths. The same Paul who called himself the chief of sinners.
If anyone had a reason to be trapped by their past, it was Paul.
Yet Paul refused to let his past become his prison.
Some of us are carrying failures from five years ago. Some are carrying regrets from twenty years ago. Some are carrying shame that Jesus already nailed to the cross.
Every morning before your feet hit the floor, the enemy starts replaying old mistakes, old wounds, and old failures.
The enemy is an accuser. That’s what he does.
But Isaiah 43:19 says:
“Behold, I will do a new thing.”
You cannot embrace the new thing God is doing while living in the old thing that happened.
Sometimes the heaviest thing in the bag isn’t what we did.
It’s what someone else did to us.
Many people are carrying bitterness. They’re carrying betrayal. They’re carrying disappointment. They’re carrying old offenses.
The person who hurt you may have already moved on. They’re sleeping fine at night. Meanwhile, you’re carrying the weight.
You’re losing sleep. You’re stressed. You’re exhausted. You’re still reliving the pain.
God isn’t asking you to forgive because they deserve it.
God is asking you to forgive because you deserve freedom.
Ephesians 4:32 says:
“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
Drop the weight.
The second thing that hinders us is people.
Paul asked:
“Who did hinder you?”
Not what. Who.
In track and field, every runner has an assigned lane. If another runner cuts into your lane and causes you to stumble, they’re disqualified.
Why?
Because one person in your lane can cost you everything you’ve trained for.
That’s true spiritually too.
Some people are helping you move toward your purpose. Others are pulling you away from it.
Proverbs 13:20 says:
“He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”
Who has access to your lane?
Who influences your thinking?
Who influences your decisions?
Who influences your relationship with God?
Sometimes you’ve got to conduct a lane audit.
Ask yourself:
1 Corinthians 15:33 reminds us:
“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”
Bad company can corrupt good character.
Wrong influences can derail right assignments.
Protect your lane.
The third hindrance is fear.
Fear doesn’t always look like panic.
Sometimes fear looks like procrastination.
Sometimes fear looks like hesitation.
Sometimes fear looks like staying in the same place year after year.
Not because you don’t want better. Not because you don’t believe God. But because you’re afraid of what will happen if you actually move forward.
Paul said in Philippians 3:14:
“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Pressing means resistance.
Something is pushing back.
Fear is often the thing pushing back.
I’ve experienced it in my own life. There have been moments when God clearly called me forward and I hesitated.
Not because I didn’t believe Him. Not because I doubted His power.
But because I was afraid of what obedience might cost.
Yet God’s Word reminds us in 2 Timothy 1:7:
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
God never called us to be fearless.
He called us to be faithful.
Joshua was afraid. Moses was afraid. Gideon was afraid.
Yet God used every one of them.
The question isn’t whether fear shows up.
The question is whether fear gets to make the decision.
Joshua 1:9 says:
“Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
What hindered you?
Was it the weight of yesterday?
Was it the wrong people in your lane?
Was it fear?
Somewhere along the way, rocks got added to the bag.
Rock after rock.
Regret.
Bitterness.
Disappointment.
Bad influences.
Fear.
But today God is calling you to put the bag down.
Because you were running well.
And by God’s grace, you can run well again.
The race is not over.
The finish line is still ahead.
And God is still calling you forward.
