By Orlando Cabrera
Have you ever heard someone say, “I am watching my weight”? There’s a good chance you have. Many of us are health conscious and that’s a good thing when it comes from a desire to be a good steward of our bodies and doesn’t come from a place of vanity (1 Corinthians 6).
But what might be lost on us are the other weights we carry. The weight of sin. The weight of burdens. The weight of sadness over the loss and brokenness we experience.
Most of us can probably identify and relate with these weights in our lives. And if we’re honest, we can admit that we often try and come up with our own fitness plans to deal with them, instead of turning to what God has already outlined for us in His Word and provided for us in Jesus Christ.
So, are you watching your weight today? And what are you doing to drop it? My encouragement would be to continue to turn to the Lord and to His Word.
THE WEIGHT OF SIN
If you are dealing with the weight of a besetting sin, look to your Savior. Remember that the same Gospel that bought our salvation, and secured our redemption and standing with the Father, is still the same Gospel that forgives, sanctifies and frees. We come into a loving relationship with God the Father through the Gospel of the Son, Jesus Christ, and we don’t now move from that to something else. The Gospel will forever remain the foundation of our lives, the sustenance we need, and the hope we hold fast to. The weight of sin has ultimately been lifted and the penalty of that sin has been paid by Jesus. And one day we will be removed from the presence of all sin. But until that day, we have the assurance of grace that is made available to us through Christ. Let’s drop the weight of sin and it’s destructive effects of shame and guilt by running to the Father who has promised that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”( 1 John 1:9)
If you belong to God, rest today in the reality, the blessing, and the joy of knowing that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) Take that weight of sin and drop it daily at the foot of Christ’s cross and continue to ask the Lord by His Spirit to keep you from being “yoked to a spirit of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). Walk in the freedom Christ has granted to you.
THE WEIGHT OF WORRY AND SADNESS
Is your weight worry, anxiety, or sadness? God has a spiritual fitness plan for that as well. Jesus didn’t promise any of us an easy life free from the pangs and pain of this broken world. Quite the opposite in fact. “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Trouble and trials are a part of the journey and you don’t have to feel unnecessary shame for feeling sad or worried. The key is to not allow those feelings to become weights that keep you from moving forward into the things the Lord has called you to, or that keep you from looking to Him as your greatest need and your greatest joy.
God doesn’t call us to ‘grin and bear it’ or to pull ourselves up by our boot straps. Instead He invites us to “cast our cares upon Him because He cares for you”. (1 Peter 5:7) As a child of God your unchanging reality is that God loves you, cares for you, fights for you and is with you. That is why Jesus lovingly and emphatically says “come to me all of you who weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”. (Matthew 11:28)
In other words, you don’t need to carry that weight. God promises to keep us in perfect peace if we fix our minds on Him (Isaiah 26:3). Those unwanted pounds are shed not by our self-efforts, but by our submission, honesty, and humility before the Father.
WATCHING OUR WEIGHT
So, let’s watch our weight; not so much the kind that is affected by what we eat. But the kinds that consume us and threaten to overwhelm our minds and hearts; sin, sadness, brokenness.
Let’s take all these different weights to the One who carried the weight of the cross and our sin so that we could taste the weightiness of God’s goodness, grace and glory that we do not deserve.
There is a race set before us to run. It’s a way that’s already been blazed by Jesus. And now the invitation is extended to every child of God to run the race by faith through the power of the Holy Spirit. Here’s the fitness plan. “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)