‘Laying aside every weight…’  Hebrews 12:1

Now here’s an interesting Scripture… Don’t worry, though – I’m not going to use it literally. (If only it could be that easy!) But I wonder how much of the extra physical weight so many of us carry is directly linked to other weights in our lives? Here are some of them…

Emotional weight:  In Proverbs27:3 we read:  A stone is heavy and sand is weighty, but a fool’s wrath is heavier than both.  ‘Wrath’ isn’t a word that we use much nowadays, but it means anger and resentment and is a heavy burden indeed.  We cannot hold on to negative emotions without them affecting us in some way.  Some people can become literally sick, whilst others of us simply turn to food, either self-medicating, seeking to numb the pain, or chewing on food as a substitute for what we’d really like to do – chew someone’s head off!
 

The weight of guilt and shame: In Lamentations 3:3 we read these words: ‘Day and night Your hand was heavy upon me.’ Sometimes we carry the burden of real guilt, in which case the weight we feel is a gift from God to help us turn to Him for cleansing and forgiveness, which He is always ready to give.  But sometimes we carry guilt feelings which have nothing to do with true moral guilt; rather they are the consequence of what others have done or said to us, leaving us with a shamed identity and negative self-esteem. When we feel bad about ourselves one way we try to compensate is through food, but in the long term we end up feeling even worse about ourselves and eat even more!

Addiction (of any kind) is a weight.  When the Israelites were in Egypt as slaves they were bound by heavy chains. Moses, God’s servant, was sent to bring them out of bondage and into the Promised Land.  Your out-of-control eating addiction is like a heavy chain, not around your ankles, but around your heart. But the good news is that Jesus has the power to set you free.

So let’s go back to our initial text which encourages us to ‘lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.’  Bring your heavy weight to God (your besetting sin of over-eating, your negative emotions and your addictions) and cast it all on Jesus. He loves you and will surely bring you into your Promised Land as you trust in Him.