Throw the Dumbbells

A few years ago, a dear friend gave me an exercise DVD, along with a pretty gift bag overflowing with tissue paper. The bag was heavy and rectangular, and I honestly thought she was giving me a six-pack of Dr Pepper, to sort of sweeten the gift of the exercise movie.

It wasn’t Dr Pepper.

It was dumbbells.

It’s a good thing she’s a dear friend.

Lately, it seems everyone I encounter—including the girl in the mirror—is lifting weights, and I don’t mean dumbbells (or Dr Pepper). We lift the weights of hardship and struggle. We carry around huge, crushing burdens, like addiction, and cancer, and foreclosure, and adultery, and shame. Some of us can barely stand up beneath it all. Some are completely flattened.

In Psalm 55, David faced attacks from his enemies, and even from his friends. He was overwhelmed and terrified. But under all the pressure, David told himself, “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall” (Psalm 55:22).

It wasn’t weight lifting, David said.

It was weight throwing.

David didn’t try to carry the weight; he cast it—threw it, flung it!—onto the Lord. And when David threw his burden onto God, God held him up, and kept him from falling.

What weights do we need to throw on God today? (Please tell me in the comments—anonymously, if you like—because I’d love to pray for you.) Weight throwing—casting our cares on the Lord—makes a shaky life solid. So enough weight lifting! Let’s throw the dumbbells.

Find more of Amy's articles at amystoms.com