Devotional for Wednesday, January 2, 2019
“Do You Know What Weighs You Down?”
by Dona Hake
I wanted to share this testimonial of a gentleman of his amazing weight loss. I heard this a few years ago, and I thought it would be good to meditate upon in light of entering a new year. This gentleman shared his story of his plan to confront his temptations of overeating …it was effective and I found it interesting. He had lost eighty pounds and he never felt better in his life. Okay, here is what he learned from his victory. Did he rid of all his food temptations just because he lost weight and attained the victory he pursued? Absolutely not! He said there were many times he would walk into the kitchen and he would be hit with the temptation to eat wrong and not remain on course . He understood that he was winning, and to give in to these temptations would set him back in his victory. His solution…he laid eight ten pound bowling balls on the floor in the kitchen. Whenever tempted he would walk over and begin to pick a few up and walk around. He felt how they weighted him down, and that extra weight made him feel exhausted. These bowling balls served as a reminder to him of the weight that he no longer carried around. This is the scripture I immediately thought of when I heard this man’s story…
Hebrews 12:1
“So we must get rid of everything that slows us down,
especially the sin that just won’t let go.
And we must be determined to run
the race that is ahead of us.”
We are all in the race, and it is called God’s will and purposes for our life. Each of us have our own battles and weaknesses that we need to purpose to overcome. No matter what the weakness is, it will ultimately slow us down doing what we are here to do. It is a good thing to remember that God desires that we identify our weaknesses, and sins that weigh us down so that He can walk hand in hand with us toward victory. Let us take hold of His help to bring down anything that weights us down or hinders our forward movement — and keep running with endurance in the will of God set before us!