Have you ever had a weight on you that just kept pressing down with no relief in sight?
When I work out in the gym and I get to the end of a set of reps, my arms or legs can begin shaking under the weight; but at least I know that I only have one or two reps remaining so I can rest assured that there is an end coming.
Sometimes in life the weight keeps piling on and it seems like there is no end in sight. So then when our arms and legs get tired and begin shaking we kind of figure that the end result will simply be that we are crushed under it all. I kind of imagine a cartoon image of some character being flattened like a pancake underneath an anvil or a heavy wooden box.
But it is not funny in real life. I know that sometimes we have to laugh so we don’t cry, because the reality of the burden is more than anyone could possibly withstand.
But Christ, who is our strength, who has secured the victory, who has finished the work, and offers complete and abundant salvation, healing and wholeness, said that we could take His burden and yoke ourselves to Him so that our load would be light. It seems impossible and almost cruel to hear someone tell us that we don’t have to be crushed or weighed down beyond our ability to endure. We think to ourselves “that’s easy for you to say” or “you wouldn’t think that if you were in my shoes”!
Yet, may we hold out hope. May we be like Abraham who “against all hope… in hope believed” (Romans 4:18). I am praying for you that just like the words Paul shared with the Corinthians, that you would be able to bear up under it, endure and escape from that which threatens to destroy you.
I know that God is for you and with you, and that He Himself is able to deliver you.
2 Corinthians 1:9-10 Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who rescued us from so great a danger of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us
Pastor Michael Johnson 