I typed in my username and password and clicked the login button. As the whirling wheel of color began to spin, so did my mind. I put my hands over my face and peeked through the cracks as I waited for the page to load. I knew that checking my bank account for the third time that day wasn’t going to change anything, but habit told me that it wouldn’t hurt to try.

As the numbers began to populate the page, my heart sank and disdain filled my mind.

“This is never going to work,” I said to myself as tears began to form behind my eyes. “There’s never going to be enough money to keep this thing afloat.”

In an instant, I was sinking.

If you’re a business owner, I know that you’re with me. We’ve all walked through (or are currently walking through) those seasons where the vision is hazy and we’re left wondering if taking that step of faith into an entrepreneurial endeavor was the right choice.

As uncomfortable as they can be, these are the seasons that show us what we’re made of because of who we’re made by. These are the seasons where we have the opportunity to choose. Do we keep our eyes on Jesus and trust that he can help us navigate the waves? Or do we fix our gaze on the circumstances around us and settle with sinking?

Hebrews shows us how to make the right choice.

“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1

Throw off everything that hinders

When we find ourselves sinking, it’s time to evaluate the cargo we’re carrying and unload anything that’s hindering our mission. We shouldn’t be surprised when a leg of the“race marked out for us” includes a seemingly impossible jog across the open ocean. We serve a God of possible impossibilities, so it only makes sense that He would lead us where we’re incapable of continuing in our own strength.

It can get frightening when we’re out in the waves, though; too far from the beginning to go back, and too far from the other side to see the end.

In this place, doubt is a difficult burden to bear, and the ponderous nature of fear threatens to drag us down into the depths of the darkness beneath our feet.

If we’re sinking, it’s time to offer these things to the One who is not only giving us the ability to walk on the water, but also wants to take our heavy burdens and give us something lighter to carry.

Throw off the sin that entangles

He doesn’t call us out on the waves to watch us sink, and he certainly does not find joy in watching us struggle. He calls us out so that he can be glorified in the miracle of us walking on the waves. In addition to the weighty things that hinder us, there’s also the paradigms that cause us to put ourselves at the center of the solution for making it through the waves.

Looking within, instead of up, for the solutions to our problems only leads us to worry, a subtle sin that can result in entangled feet and a halt in forward momentum.

Hebrews 12:1 says that we should throw off everything that hinders. If there is a paradigm, a thought or a feeling that causes us to doubt the goodness or capability of our God, we’d do best to be proactive and throw it off. There’s a good chance that those things are what’s giving us that sinking feeling.

Run with perseverance

Once we’ve freed ourselves of the things that hinder and the sin that entangles, we have to choose to keep moving forward. Regardless of where we are or what we’ve been through, we always have the choice to keep moving forward.

Walking on the waves means choosing persistence when the numbers in the bank account don’t add up. Walking on the waves means choosing to put one foot in front of the other when a mistake puts us further behind than we feel like we should be. Walking on the waves means trusting that he who promised is faithful, and he is capable of seeing us through.

He promises exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine. We’ll only be able to see and experience these things if we decide in our hearts that He is greater than the waves we see around us, and he will deliver us safely to the other side where we will reap the harvest if we do not give up.

I’m choosing to believe that he’s capable of keeping me from sinking. What about you?