Author Ava Pennington
Author Ava Pennington
Unnecessary Burdens

Unnecessary Burdens

 

Have you noticed how some things are becoming smaller and lighter these days? The first computer took up an entire building. Now you can hold a mini iPad in the palm of your hand. The first mobile phone looked and felt like a brick with an antenna. Now cell phones can slip into a shirt pocket.

Then again, not everything is shrinking. I waited behind a school bus the other day as children disembarked, and I was struck by the size and apparent weight of their backpacks. I don’t know how they walk, much less run, with such an obviously heavy burden strapped to their backs. I have a feeling we’re setting up a whole new generation for weekly chiropractor appointments!

This brings me to the growing weight of things I should not be carrying.

  • Guilt for things I’ve said.
  • Regret for things I should have done, but didn’t.
  • Habits I defend rather than break.
  • Sin I excuse instead of confess.
  • Replaying painful things people said long ago, unable to move past their hurtful words.
  • Unforgiveness that prevents a soul-wound from healing.

Of course, there is certainly a place for guilt. It drives us to the Cross. And regret for past actions helps us avoid repeating those actions. But when guilt and regret paralyze us instead of teaching us, then they become a burden, along with the other things I mentioned, that we were never meant to carry.

And the weight of all these things becomes heavier with each passing day.

Like me, are you carrying loads you shouldn’t bear? It’s time for us to cast off these burdens. God never meant us to carry weights that interfere with our relationship with Him. Christ died to release us from sin and its eternal consequences. The apostle Paul used the analogy of a race to communicate the importance of letting go of anything that hinders us from finishing this journey in a way that honors the Savior.

“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” (Hebrews 12:1 NIV).

It’s one thing to release our burden of sin at the Cross and received the gift of salvation. But if we don’t continue to lay down our burdens, day by day, hour by hour, even minute by minute, the unnecessary weight will bog us down on the way to the finish line. Let’s lighten the load!

What burden do you need to set down today?

 

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6 Comments

  1. Melissa Henderson

    Great message. I need to throw down the burden of worry. I give my worries to the Lord, and then, take them right back. I am trying to get better about this. Your post came just at the right time.

  2. Janice D. Green

    This is so true, probably for all of us, but especially for me. Thank you for the reminder.

  3. Marcie Cramsey

    The following two burdens that you list often rear their ugly head in my life:

    Regret for things I should have done, but didn’t.
    Habits I defend rather than break.

    They can be all-consuming if I don’t let them go and embrace the new that God has for me.
    Thanks for the reminder! 🙂

  4. Jessica Brodie

    This exactly! “But if we don’t continue to lay down our burdens, day by day, hour by hour, even minute by minute, the unnecessary weight will bog us down on the way to the finish line.” Here’s to letting go of that extra weight.

  5. Yvonne Morgan

    I have noticed the overloaded backpacks some of the children carry and it makes a great analogy for your post. I pray for God to remind of the ways I could lighten my load over the years. Thanks for sharing

  6. Melinda Viergever Inman

    A great post, Ava! It’s so easy to think we have to carry around all of the burdens that we instead should hand off to Jesus. There’s a reason he tells us that his yoke is easy and his burden light. He wants to take our load, to shoulder those memories and past wounds and hurtful conversations that we continue to rehearse in our minds for far too long. Pass the load on to Jesus. His merciful heart and strong might can handle them. We cannot!

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