Lighten Your Load

“Let us strip off every weight that slows us down”,
(Hebrews 12:1)

What’s weighing you down? Can you identify anything in your life that is too heavy for you to haul? Life
offers us loads in great supply and of a wide variety. It seems as if there is always something attempting
to weigh us down. One of the heaviest weights we all encounter is worry. There is no shortage of things
for us to worry about. Our families, finances and health are often hot spots that attract anxiety. But it
doesn’t end there. We often worry ourselves with our work, become fearful of what the future may hold
or even of what others think of us. Worry is heavy weight. It is more than we were meant to carry. In
fact, it is medically proven that our bodies were not designed to function properly under this kind of
weight. Heart attacks and stress are often directly attributed to worry and access stress. That is one of
the reasons God tells us, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything, (Philippians 4:6).

There are other reasons God warns us not to worry. We have an enemy on the loose. He has a one-
track mind; To “steal, kill and destroy” as many Christians as he can. He wants to steal our peace, kill our
joy and destroy our faith. The devil will employ every dirty trick in the book to accomplish his goal. One
of his favorite weapons is worry. He uses it like a battering ram to break down the walls of our faith and
infiltrate our minds with fear. The last thing Satan wants is for us to live by faith. Why? Because he
knows that we are never stronger than when we are truly walking by faith and not by what we see and
feel. When we are living in complete trust of our Creator, we are able to see all situations and scenarios
as they truly are; Temporary and destined to change. This is an empowering perspective. Looking
through the lens of faith, we can look the devil in the eye and say, ‘do your worst because God is for me
who can be against me’, (Romans 8:31).

Let me ask you a question. Do you think it is possible for us to completely trust God and worry at the
same time? Let me answer that for you. No, we cannot do both. We either believe God and turn a deaf
ear to worry or we believe worry and turn a deaf ear to God. The choice is ours. So let us choose wisely
to listen to the Voice of truth and tune out the devil. This daily decision will drastically lighten our load.

-authored by Josh York