HEALTHY HABITSâ—½ YOU
We, I, often talk about laying our burdens down, unloading our proverbial backpacks, letting go of what burdens us, handing it all over to Him…we say it in a dozen different ways. The Word tells us to come unto him if we’re weary and He will give us rest. But, you might be wondering and thinking – that sounds good – but how in the heck does one do that?
How do we let go of our burdensome and heavy load, and give it to Him?
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Here are some practical helps:
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Tell – Sometimes, just telling someone about what we’re carrying takes the load off our backs, because now have a friend sharing the load. Of course, we have to be careful who we choose and how much we tell, depending on the load. But a trustworthy friend? Well, she’s pure gold if you have one. So tell.
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Write – My husband and I, and my children and I, have written notes by hand to each other. It helped us all process, I suppose, when we were upset. And somehow, putting a pen(cil) to the paper to unload a hurt or a wish, etc. sometimes made us realize our hurt was unfounded. Or we looked at things differently once we tried to express it on paper. And unloading on paper is also a way to just get it all out, and even toss the paper in the trash, thus…letting go.
Read – The Word is the best place to go, to see how unload the heavy. “Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my sighing…” it’s the beginning of a prayer in the psalms. It goes on to cry out for help and acknowledges that God hears our voices, and we can lay our requests before him, knowing full well He’s present. Lot of verses remind us and instruct us on how to lay them down.
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Pray – After we’ve told, written, read the Word and realized that honestly…God is the most trustworthy of all friends, we are finally ready to open our hands, unzip the pockets, shake loose, or take out all that we’ve placed in the backpack…and hand it all to him. Practically, that might look like visualizing while we pray – handing the heaviness over to Him – and watching Him clasp the worries in His hands. Prayer doesn’t have to be a formula or a recitation all the time. It can simply be closed eyes, looking into His face, and letting go.
Worship – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started listening to worship, the songs that sing about the goodness of God, his faithfulness, his love and his mercy…and the load just falls off. Then if I start dancing and (again) visualizing my feet standing on his feet as we move in sync…again I begin to feel lighter and unafraid.
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We gather stones of heaviness daily, as we step outside our homes and enter the dusty world, walk the gravel paths, and encounter a rolling boulder or two from the hills around us. So a daily exercise of emptying the pack, laying down the load, is a necessary one in order to have legs that can skip, instead of shuffle under the load.
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Try one of the above, or all five, and see if your back, and your heart, doesn’t feel less burdened, as you do the healthiest exercise of all – hand the heaviness all over to Him.