When my Heart is Heavy
Often times we may find ourselves feeling heavy and weighed down or feeling weary. Maybe we feel as though we’ve lost our direction…our light.
When Jesus went to pray at Gethsemane, He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. He told them “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here and watch with me (Matt. 26:38). He then went to pray and when He returned, (v. 40), and He came to His disciples and found them sleeping, and He said to Peter, “So you could not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
There are two examples set here that we can learn from. When we feel heavy, weary, without direction, it could be that we haven’t taken our cares to the Lord. Even Jesus recognized He needed time to seek the Father and His will. When we are seeking our own will and try to do things in our own strength, we will be weighed down, heavy, feeling like we have no direction. Jesus knew that the Father was His source of strength, His source of direction. In John 5:19 ESV it says, So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” So you see, apart from our Father we do nothing of our own accord, but by seeking Him, He uses us in our weakness to display His strength.
The second example we can learn from is Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. They not only fell asleep once, but twice! If you remember, Jesus said to them, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
How often do we face temptation? I’m sure every day, several times a day. The enemy knows our likes and dislikes. He even knows what gets “under our skin.” We long to serve and worship our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our enemy, who roams around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, knows this and knows just what buttons to push to take our eyes off Jesus, to take our hearts and minds off of God’s faithful and true word. Before you know it we get angry at one another, maybe say something we didn’t even mean to say or even just put up a wall as a self defense mechanism, which only continues to divide and hurt the parties involved. Or maybe it leads us to turn to something else that makes us “feel good” instead of Jesus. We fall to temptation.
Hebrews 4:12 ESV says, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
We have something they didn’t have 2,000 years ago. We have the Bible, the written word of God. Not only do we have the Bible, but we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us to lead us into all truth. By seeking the Lord and spending time with Him in His word, we will not be heavy, weighed down, weary, or without direction. We will be renewed, strengthened and built up as God’s army to march onto the battle field and take back ground for the Lord Almighty!
So, my dear brothers and sisters put on the full armor of God, that you might be able to stand against the schemes of the devil(Eph. 6:10-11 ESV).
©2022 Leslie Wittenmyer ~ All rights reserved