Flesh Is But a Weight - Warrior Mom Wisdom - Week of May 12
Flesh Is But a Weight
I was sitting in church this morning thinking how exhausted I was while simultaneously celebrating the power of the Word of God. I thought it was interesting how I can be so very excited about the transforming characteristics of the Word of God and feel like I’ve been run over by a truck at the same time. As I sat there with this contradiction God said, “Flesh is but a weight.”
Immediately I realized that the flesh does feel heavy; I also realized that the word weight is a homophone because the “flesh is but a wait” as well. Our lives on this earth in our fleshly bodies serve as a waiting period before we go home to be with God forever. It is essential to be housed in human form for a short while, but the spirit endures forever. At this very moment, I am so tired that I want to bust through the human weight that is on me. How can such freedom be obtained? I have been reminded that the answer is only found within “waiting on the Lord.”
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.
He will not grow tired or weary; and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.
I see now that God gave us the burden of the flesh so that we would entrust our burdens to Him. He made us to need Him so that we would feel so inclined as to turn to Him and ask Him to help us, heal us, save us, and make us new. I also see that the weight of the flesh is as constant as our wait upon Him. The constant pressures of this world cause us to constantly press into Him, and it is there that we find the balance needed to persevere.
I see now that the flesh is but a weight that keeps us rooted in Christ. Praise Him!
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if one some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is their same. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Psalm 68:19
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become the high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
True, I may still feel “tired” today, but oh how I am excited about the power of Christ within me! I pray that any exhaustion we may feel in the flesh will be used for exalting the Savior.
Kristina Seymour loves to encourage and equip women through the Word and through community. She is the author of The Warrior Mom Handbook, The Warrior Mom Leadership Manual, and The Warrior Wife Handbook; they are available at Amazon.com. Kristina's Bible studies are for women who desire to live by faith in the midst of their everyday lives. She has learned that women can't survive on caffeine and animal crackers alone; women in the Word and in community are united and able to stand firm. To learn more about Kristina, please visit her website, https://kristinaseymour.com/. God loves to share His story of love and grace through us all, and Kristina believes that everyone has a story to tell.
