Get rid of that excess weight
Those who love Your law have an abundance of peace, and nothing along their paths can cause them to stumble. (Psalm 119:165 VOICE)
I once heard it said you can only be filled when you are empty - so abundance is assured to those who constantly allow their tanks to be filled - but who also are also willing to be emptied in order to meet the needs of others. A full tank doesn't need to be filled, does it? A half-empty tank can still get us to a great many destination, but an empty tank requires us to stop what we are doing, get the refill we need, and then begin again the journey which awaits.
The one who loves God's word will never be without the abundance they so desperately desire. The world may not see a Christian's abundance as much more than this thing we refer to as "inner peace", but let me assure you of this - no one who possesses this peace is ever empty! We often are duped by the world's thinking about "abundance" - as though "getting more" meant we would somehow be more "satisfied" or content. Truth is, some of the people who boast the most about what they have in abundance really have very little!
Peace may be overrated in some people's eyes, but that is probably because they have never truly experienced what it is to truly understand and luxuriate in inner peace. To be confident all is well within your soul - that all the consequences of your crazy, mixed up life have been sorted out, dealt with, and placed solidly under the covering of Christ's blood is something no "thing" could ever replace in our lives. Peace is a sense of assurance - it is walking in a manner which reflects the "lightness" of our soul's "weight".
The thing about Christ's peace that makes it different than just the absence of noise or movement is that it actually removes the obstacles we stumble upon in the course of living lives filled with the things that weigh us down. When guilt niggles at the edges of our thoughts all the time, we cannot be free to truly appreciate the world in quite the same way as when we are finally out from under that load. When anxiety builds to the point your chest is tight, the knot between your shoulder is boulder size, and the acids in your stomach have about eaten through the lining - you stumble upon almost anything in your path which is going to "get on that last frayed nerve".
When the person of peace (Christ) is indwelling the space once occupied by a load of guilt and a plethora of anxious worry, the lightness of one's soul is evident. In turn, we are much more aware of the path we travel - and we can avoid the things which would otherwise cause us to stumble and fall. Weight isn't just something we carry on our "body" - it is also something we carry in our soul. The greatest "reducer" of this inner-weight is peace. Just sayin!
I once heard it said you can only be filled when you are empty - so abundance is assured to those who constantly allow their tanks to be filled - but who also are also willing to be emptied in order to meet the needs of others. A full tank doesn't need to be filled, does it? A half-empty tank can still get us to a great many destination, but an empty tank requires us to stop what we are doing, get the refill we need, and then begin again the journey which awaits.
The one who loves God's word will never be without the abundance they so desperately desire. The world may not see a Christian's abundance as much more than this thing we refer to as "inner peace", but let me assure you of this - no one who possesses this peace is ever empty! We often are duped by the world's thinking about "abundance" - as though "getting more" meant we would somehow be more "satisfied" or content. Truth is, some of the people who boast the most about what they have in abundance really have very little!
Peace may be overrated in some people's eyes, but that is probably because they have never truly experienced what it is to truly understand and luxuriate in inner peace. To be confident all is well within your soul - that all the consequences of your crazy, mixed up life have been sorted out, dealt with, and placed solidly under the covering of Christ's blood is something no "thing" could ever replace in our lives. Peace is a sense of assurance - it is walking in a manner which reflects the "lightness" of our soul's "weight".
The thing about Christ's peace that makes it different than just the absence of noise or movement is that it actually removes the obstacles we stumble upon in the course of living lives filled with the things that weigh us down. When guilt niggles at the edges of our thoughts all the time, we cannot be free to truly appreciate the world in quite the same way as when we are finally out from under that load. When anxiety builds to the point your chest is tight, the knot between your shoulder is boulder size, and the acids in your stomach have about eaten through the lining - you stumble upon almost anything in your path which is going to "get on that last frayed nerve".
When the person of peace (Christ) is indwelling the space once occupied by a load of guilt and a plethora of anxious worry, the lightness of one's soul is evident. In turn, we are much more aware of the path we travel - and we can avoid the things which would otherwise cause us to stumble and fall. Weight isn't just something we carry on our "body" - it is also something we carry in our soul. The greatest "reducer" of this inner-weight is peace. Just sayin!
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