Heart Healthy in Jesus

Psalm 38:3-4 kjv

³ There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. ⁴ For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

I encourage you to begin asking yourself each day, “Do I really want to set yourself up for failure by making promises to yourself to change? Promises that you know you probably will not keep due to your desires or lack of willpower?”

There are always going to be things we want to change, fix or that we are promising ourselves. We are always wanting to change or improve about ourselves, such as, getting in shape, losing weight, eating healthier, and balancing our bank accounts. But these things seem to be less in important in comparison when I consider the goals I could set that would affect my eternal life, not merely my day to day life.The most important thing we can do each day is to enhance our walk with Jesus. Unfortunately, walking with Jesus every day may not shed any pounds from our physical bodies! But better yet, we can shed a different kind of weight – the weight from things that burdens our hearts. Such weights include unforgiveness, stress, worry, sin, and guilt. If these feelings are constant in our everyday lives, the weight of these emotions can have detrimental effects on our physical bodies, including headaches, weight gain, high blood pressure, digestive problems, and the list goes on. These weights can also crush our spirits, and eventually put a strain on our relationship with our Savior. Drowning in worry, anger and other destructive emotions separates us from the peace that Christ intends for us to have.

When our hearts are weighed down with burdens that we have not lifted up to God, how can we be encouraging and uplifting to other people, when we do not feel encouraged and uplifted ourselves? How can we teach our children to forgive others and love them, when we are harboring anger and harbor feelings of unforgiveness in our heart? How can we witness to people in need of a Savior, when we aren’t calling on the Savior in our own hard times? So you see, when we are lugging around all that extra weight, it not only affects your physical and spiritual health, but it can also impact those around us.

If you have been feeling burdened, discouraged, lacking in confidence, or unworthy in any way, take a moment to consider what is weighing down your heart. Is there someone who needs your forgiveness? Are you wasting time stressed and worrying about circumstances of the past and in your life, which you have no control over? Are you frustrated about a seemingly hopeless situation with your spouse, children, boss, friend, etc? LET GO OF THOSE THINGS!

We don’t always have control over things that happen in our lives, but we do have control over our own choices. We can choose to be weighed down by burdens, or choose to lift them up to Christ and free ourselves from the bondage of stress and worry. Are you ready to start losing some weight today?

Dear Lord, Open my eyes to the things in my life that are weighing heavily on my heart and soul. Forgive me for not releasing those things to You. Give me the strength to let go of those burdens and not ever pick them up again, knowing that You are in control and will carry all of my weights for me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.