THE WEIGHT YOU CARRY

“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:30-31 KJV

Imagine standing at the edge of an airport runway as a commercial airplane prepares for takeoff. Thousands of people sit quietly inside. Their luggage is packed. The fuel tanks are full. Every seat is occupied. The aircraft itself weighs hundreds of thousands of pounds. Looking at it from the ground, one thought comes to mind:

"There is no way something that heavy should ever leave the earth."

Yet every day, it does.

As the engines begin to roar, the plane doesn't immediately lift off. It starts by rolling. Slowly at first. Then faster. Every second, the pressure increases. The resistance from the air grows stronger. The vibration intensifies. The passengers feel the force pushing them back into their seats. To someone unfamiliar with aviation, it might seem as if the pressure is working against the aircraft.

But the pressure isn't stopping the plane.

It is preparing it.

The airplane must reach a specific speed before its wings can generate enough lift to overcome its weight. Until that moment, all the weight is still there. The passengers are still on board. The luggage hasn't disappeared. The fuel is still in the tanks. Nothing has become lighter.

What changed was not the weight.

What changed was the lift.

Many of us spend our lives praying for God to remove the weight. We ask Him to take away the responsibility, the grief, the disappointment, the ministry, the family obligations, the financial burdens, or the expectations others have placed upon us.

Sometimes He does.

But often, He doesn't.

Instead, He strengthens us. He develops our character. He deepens our faith. He teaches us endurance. He increases our capacity until what once held us down no longer has the power to keep us grounded.

The weight may remain, but your ability to carry it has changed.

That is what an Overcomer discovers.

God never promised a life without pressure. In fact, many of the people He used most carried extraordinary weight. Moses carried the burden of leading a nation. David carried the pressure of a kingdom. Esther carried the future of her people. Paul carried churches, persecution, imprisonment, and responsibility. Above all, Jesus carried the weight of the cross.

None of them were defined by what they carried.

They were defined by the God who sustained them.

Perhaps you've been asking, "God, why won't You take this away?"

Maybe the better question is, "God, what are You building in me while I carry it?"

Because some burdens aren't meant to break you.

They're meant to build the strength you'll need for the altitude God has prepared for your life.

Just as an airplane cannot soar until lift exceeds its weight, your life will not rise because every burden disappears. You rise because God's grace becomes greater than the weight you're carrying.

The weight is real.

The pressure is real.

But so is the God who gives you wings to soar.

Could it be God is seeing if you will trust that He knows just how much you can bear and how to take care of you? If these things were not true the psalmist would not have written the lyrics,

Be not dismayed whate’er betide;

God will take care of you.

Beneath His wings of love abide;

God will take care of you.

If these words were not true, the comfort of the Lord’s promise would not be true in this scripture, “Fear not, for I am with you…” The reality is we’ve all felt that weight makes us feel as though we can’t make it or we don’t have the strength to carry out God’s plan for our lives, but can I let you in on a secret? You have the power. The power to make it. The power to climb over the tallest mountains and tunnel through the deepest valleys. And, as a believer in Jesus Christ, you must know that weight is only a precursor to victory. Sometimes you must bear the weight knowing that the weight cannot overpower you. I’m not sure where you may be in life reading this but, I want you to know that these troubles won’t last always. I want to encourage you to not let your reality trump Gods sovereignty. God knows. God sees. And God cares about you. When you know all these things, your head ought to rise a little higher and your stance ought to get stronger because you my friend will make it.

Declaring I’m an Overcomer comes with risk. The risk is that you don’t know exactly what you will face but there’s also promise. The promise is that no matter what, God is there. So, come what may from day to day we’ve got a heavenly Father who is there for us, watching us from the windows of Heaven encamping angels around us to whisper to us in our loneliness, I am with you. The immediate relief just to feel, see or know that God is with you. It brings instant tears to my eyes because at my lowest points, God was there. When I wanted to throw in the towel, God was there. When I believed what people said about me more than what the word spoke about me, God was there. Never to leave or forsake us, every person who reads this knowing they are Overcomers, must know that God is with us. And that my friend, is the truest testament to how you can handle this weight we call Life.