The book of Hebrews are words of encouragement to the first-century church. The early believers were getting weary in their journey. There was a great war of faith and many were wanting to give up. The words of Hebrews were to help settle them and sustain them in their faith. The writer uses the analogy of a race to make his point. The chapter begins with an admonishment to cast off the things that were weighing them down and preventing them from progressing. We each have our own personal weights that impede our progress. Paul goes on to advise that they lay aside the sin that could trip them up. He refers to those convenient and close sins that are easily getting in the way. These are not necessarily the big things, but the simple small things that trip us up and are always around. These besetting sins could be prayerlessness, fear, doubt, or distractions. But perhaps the most dangerous besetting sin is the sin of giving up. We have all experienced the frustration of the resistance and been tempted to give up. The one thing that could have derailed everything that Jesus did, it would have been the temptation to give up. They taunted Him that if He came down off the cross, they would believe Him. Jesus asked that the cup pass from Him. Quitting when we are so close is the most dangerous sin. Our flesh is weak. Often if we listened to our flesh, we would turn around and go home. The pressure to give up is relentless. Paul offers Jesus as the example of how to overcome the urge to give up. How did Jesus keep going in the face of mockery, ridicule, physical torture, and ultimately death? When we feel ourselves getting weary, we need to go back and study Jesus’ story.