Am I trying to carry things that are too heavy for me?

June 19, 2014: Am I trying to carry things that are too heavy for me? Please "Share" this new Precious Prodigal post: http://bit.ly/1no0Jom

Hebrews 12:1 “let us lay aside every weight…and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

Sin isn’t the only thing we are told to lay aside; we are also admonished to “lay aside every weight.” I’ve heard people say those “weights” are the things in our lives that, although they aren’t sin, are questionable behaviors. That may be partly true, but I believe there’s a deeper meaning here.

The example the writer of Hebrews uses is of someone who is running a race. People who run track don’t carry any extra weight on their bodies. But they also don’t carry anything else that adds to their weight. Even their clothes and shoes are as light as possible. And they don’t carry a backpack full of heavy things. If they did, they might manage to run for a while, but they for sure wouldn’t be able to finish the race.

You’ve probably heard that God won’t put more on us than we can handle. You may even have said it yourself. It’s a good thought, but it just isn’t so. The truth is we often face things that are too heavy for us. If God only gave us what we could handle, why would He tell us we are not to “trust in man and make flesh his strength?” (Jer 17:5) Why would He tell us to go to Him when our hearts are overwhelmed? (Psalm 61:2)

The answer is not to “put on your big-girl or big-boy pants and deal with it.” The answer is to lay it aside…to let it go. I’m not saying you should throw up your hands and quit. Nor am I talking about walking through life ignoring the things that have broken your heart or to pretend everything is wonderful.

I won’t insult you by trying to minimize the terrible things that may have happened in your life. Some of those things are so heart-rending that only the cruelest person would tell you to “handle it.” And God is anything but cruel. The God who loves us with an everlasting love has a better solution. We are told to “cast all [our] cares upon Him because he cares for [us]. ” (1 Peter 5:7)

God doesn’t want us to just run the race. He wants us to run it “with patience.” Patience: that ability to accept and tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. We can’t possibly do that if we are carrying a backpack full of burdens…those burdens that God never intended for us to carry alone.

When we’ve prayed for a long time and haven’t seen the answer, when the next crisis hits or when we’ve been walking this path for a very long time, it isn’t easy to keep on keeping on and to do it with patience. In fact, we absolutely can’t do it…not in our own strength alone. It’s not enough to run…we need to finish the race. And the way to do it is to take those burdens that are weighing our spirits down and give them to the One who can do something about them. We need to let them go.

Challenge for Today: Can you, just for today, take that heavy burden you’ve carried for so long and give it to the Lord? Can you let it go?