Before I Let Go of 2025: Spiritual Capacity
Priceless Lesson form Dr. Price
Before I Let Go of 2025: Building Your Spiritual Capacity for the Year Ahead
📖 1,247 words | ⏱️ 6 min read
Picture this: You're standing at the doorway of a new year, bags packed, ready to cross the threshold. But before you step through, someone asks you a question that stops you cold: "What are you still carrying that's too heavy for where you're going?"
That's exactly the question Dr. Richard Price posed to our congregation at Schrader Lane Church of Christ as we prepared to transition from 2025 to 2026. Drawing from Hebrews 12:1-2, he delivered a message that wasn't about making resolutions or setting goals—it was about something far more fundamental: assessing our spiritual capacity to obey God in the year ahead.
The Scripture declares: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 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, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith" (Hebrews 12:1-2).
This isn't just poetic language—it's a confrontation. Before we can carry new assignments into a new season, we must first strip off every weight and build the capacity required to run the race God has already set before us.
Understanding What Spiritual Capacity Really Means
Dr. Price gave us a biblical definition that cuts through the confusion: Spiritual capacity is the heart's willingness, the soul's alignment, and the body's endurance to constantly follow God in obedience, trust, and perseverance.
This is crucial to understand—capacity is not the same as desire or intention. You might want to serve God faithfully, you might intend to read your Bible daily, you might desire to be in worship every Sunday. But capacity is the proven ability to keep obeying when life becomes demanding, when responsibilities increase, and when rest feels scarce.
According to Hebrews, our spiritual capacity has three interconnected components:
- The Heart's Willingness – When our hearts harden, capacity shrinks. Hebrews 3:7-8 warns us: "Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts."
- The Soul's Alignment – When our souls grow weary, capacity weakens. We must stay aligned with God's purposes even when we're tired.
- The Body's Endurance – When our bodies are depleted, obedience becomes fragile. Physical exhaustion affects spiritual faithfulness.
Before God expands our assignments or releases His promised blessings, He examines our readiness. He checks our capacity. The question we must ask ourselves is this: Do I have the capacity to keep running the race God has already set before me?
Getting Honest About Where You Really Are
One of the most liberating truths Dr. Price shared is this: You cannot grow beyond what you refuse to acknowledge.
Hebrews doesn't shame weariness—it names it. The book speaks to believers who were misunderstood, under persecution, publicly exposed, and exhausted. Hebrews 10:34 reminds us: "You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy."
God doesn't work with denial; He works with truth. Where are you really at when you sit in church? Where are you spiritually? Emotionally? Mentally? Physically?
Maybe you're a caregiver who's stretched to the limit. Maybe you're working multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Maybe you're dealing with chronic illness, raising children alone, or navigating a season of deep loss. God sees your lived reality—and He doesn't ask you to pretend it doesn't exist.
What He does ask is that you be faithful right where you are. Because Hebrews 6:10 assures us: "God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them."
Remembering What God Taught You While You Were Surviving
Dr. Price challenged us with a penetrating question: "Do you remember what God was trying to show you this year, or do you just see it as punishment?"
Hebrews 12:11 tells us: "No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it's painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way."
God uses difficulty as discipline for spiritual formation, not punishment. Before you let go of 2025, take an honest inventory: What did you survive? The doctor's appointments, the household crises, the financial pressures, the relationship conflicts—how did you make it through?
The answer should be clear: It was your faith in God, your faith in the supremacy of Christ, your faith in His covenant promises that allowed you to hang on when you felt like giving up.
But here's the critical next step: Don't forget the lesson God was teaching you during that survival. Transition without reflection produces repetition, not growth. If you forget what God was showing you, you risk repeating the same season all over again.
Obedience Over Perception—Every Single Time
Here's a truth that will set you free: You will never outlive other people's perceptions of you, but you must still obey God.
People may define you by a former season. They may freeze you in a past version of yourself. But Hebrews doesn't instruct us to correct everyone's perception—it instructs us to remain faithful. Hebrews 10:35 commands: "So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you!"
If perception dictates your obedience, your capacity will always shrink. But if obedience dictates your posture, your capacity will expand. The question before letting go of 2025 isn't whether people understood you—it's whether you stayed obedient to God.
Dr. Price testified to this personally. Despite battling a cold and not feeling well, he stood in the pulpit because he realized that in serving God, he was unlocking the blessings God had for him. "If God can send His Son to go all the way to the cross for me," he preached, "I can get up on a Sunday and serve Him."
Your Home Base Must Be Strong
One of the most profound moments in Dr. Price's message came when he shared wisdom from his mentor: "You cannot out-preach your life."
Public faith is only as strong and healthy as your private life at home. If your household is in chaos, if your marriage is struggling, if you're neglecting your children in the name of ministry—your public faith becomes unsustainable.
Hebrews 6:10 uses relational, family language when describing our service to God. This tells us something important: God cares about how we treat our families, how we manage our households, how we honor our most fundamental responsibilities.
Dr. Price made a vulnerable request: "My prayer for you, and my prayer that I hope you will have for me, is to be a good minister—but also be a good husband. Be a good minister, but make sure you are a good father."
Before you can sustain public faith, private faith must be in order. Your home base matters. Your household is foundational. Don't sacrifice your family on the altar of looking spiritual to other people.
Stripping Off the Weight and Running With Endurance
Hebrews 12:1 commands intentional release: "Let us strip off every weight that slows us down."
Notice the language—not everything we're carrying is sinful. Some things are simply too heavy for where God is taking us. We must let go of:
- Draining patterns that deplete our spiritual energy
- Expired seasons we're trying to resurrect
- Relationships that pull us away from God
- Anything that compromises our love for God
As Dr. Price explained, the "sin" in this passage isn't just blatant wrongdoing—it's anything that comes close to overshadowing your love for God. It's whatever makes God question whether you love Him most.
Letting go is not abandonment—it's preparation. Some of us don't need to wait for a New Year's Eve service. Some weights need to be laid down right now so you can be what God wants you to be.
Looking Ahead to 2026: The Capacity to Obey
Dr. Price announced that the theme for 2026 at Schrader Lane Church of Christ will be "the capacity to obey God." Using the book of Hebrews as the foundation, the congregation will cross-examine their faith, their beliefs, and how they exercise obedience across every dimension of worship—attendance, giving, and service through the local church.
Why this focus? Because Hebrews 10:36 teaches us: "Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that He has promised."
Capacity is revealed in sustained obedience—faithfulness in your calling, integrity in your leadership, consistency in your character. The more you obey God, the more you see His blessings revealed in your life. The more you are faithful, the more you don't mind serving Him because you see what He had in mind for you was far better than you could have imagined.
God's promised blessings are unlocked through obedience. And sometimes God will "fast-forward" your life because of your faithfulness, skipping steps others have to endure because you are His child. Other times, He doesn't fast-forward anything because He wants you to sit in it long enough to learn the lesson—so you stop depending on people or worldly validation and learn to depend solely on Him.
Living This Out
As we stand at the threshold of a new year, the question isn't about making grand resolutions. It's about honest assessment and faithful obedience. Here's where you start:
Take an honest inventory of your spiritual capacity. Where is your heart? Is it willing, or has it hardened? Where is your soul? Is it aligned with God's purposes, or has it grown weary? Where is your body? Does it have the endurance to keep running, or is it depleted?
Identify the weights you need to strip off. What patterns are draining you? What relationships are pulling you away from God? What seasons have expired but you're still trying to resurrect?
Reflect on what God taught you in 2025. Don't just remember what you survived—remember what God was showing you during that survival. Write it down. Pray over it. Let those lessons inform how you move forward.
Strengthen your home base. Your public faith can only be as strong as your private life. Are you honoring your household responsibilities? Are you being faithful at home before you try to be faithful in public ministry?
Fix your eyes on Jesus. Hebrews 12:2 reminds us to look "unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." He started your story. He will finish it. Keep your eyes on Him, not on other people's opinions or actions.
Commit to sustained obedience in 2026. Don't let your boss, your circumstances, or your fears dictate your faithfulness. God is higher than everything—higher than your employer, higher than policy, higher than cultural pressure. Be faithful to Him, and He will take care of you.
Watch or Listen to the Full Message
Experience Dr. Richard Price's complete sermon, "Before I Let Go of 2025," delivered at Schrader Lane Church of Christ.
For more resources on building spiritual capacity and deepening your walk with Christ, visit Barry's Bureau.
Share Your Thoughts
What weight do you need to lay down before entering the new year? How is God calling you to increase your spiritual capacity in 2026?
Share your reflections in the comments below, or connect with our community at Schrader Lane Church of Christ. We're praying for your journey of faithful obedience in the year ahead.
Barry's Bureau | Inspired by Dr. Richard Price's sermon at Schrader Lane Church of Christ
Barry's Bureau – Inspiring Excellence in Christian Living | www.BarrysBureau.org
Before I Let Go of 2025:
Building Spiritual Capacity
Test your understanding of Dr. Richard Price's sermon on Hebrews 12:1-2
This quiz will help you reflect on the key principles from the sermon. There are 7 questions designed to deepen your understanding of building spiritual capacity for the year ahead.