Devotions From City HarborSampel

Take the wounds and the weight, every layer that you wear, and just leave it here. Just leave it here.

As the years of life go by, we have a tendency of picking things up. We pick up titles. We pick up scars. We pick up people. We pick up ideas. And we carry them with us.

At some point, we begin to wear these things like heavy clothing. We walk around showing people the clothes we wear, hiding the person beneath. This seems fine at first. But eventually, we find we have lost the ability to shed these clothes.

We find we have forgotten who is beneath them.

See, we let these things begin to rule us, to act as us. Like the thespian in Lewis’s The Great Divorce, we become controlled by a long list of things we think we ought to be or not be. And suddenly, the things we’ve picked up are not fun at all. They’ve become terribly heavy. And they threaten to crush us.

But our Father does not leave us to such a fate.

He beckons us to throw off the falseness, the pressures to be someone else, the fears of not being enough. More than that He offers to carry them for us.

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you.” -  Psalm 55:22

With the power of Christ, we have the opportunity to escape from the lies and the hurts that we’ve accumulated. We can recognize that we are complete in Him. We are first and foremost children of the King of the Universe. There is no greater title, no higher calling.

"Lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” - Hebrews 12:1

Once we accept this invitation, once we agree to let go, we are freed to walk in love and light. When we trust God to carry us, we find He will take us where we never would have dreamed.