28 OCT 23 Saturday: A Closer Walk Devotional
“Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, ‘I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.’ And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.” Psalm 32: 5
We carry a lot of baggage in our hearts and minds that can really weigh us down. We still lug it around and it shows on our faces. One of my fellow chaplains did a little skit where he had a backpack that was empty and a table full of bricks. Each brick had a different emotion, sin, problem, and stressor written on it. The volunteer put the empty backpack on and then began adding the bricks to the backpack.
Before long, the volunteer was visibly getting weaker and struggling to keep his balance. Eventually, it became too heavy to carry and he fell. In the story, Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian is carrying all his burdens in a backpack hoping to be able to unload them to someone. He was told that if he reached the narrow gate there would be a person to take his burdens. We are all like that, carrying around burdens that can be unloaded, but we just keep adding bricks.
Why? The psalmist experiences this and acknowledges that he refused to deal with the problems he had and his body began to waste away and he groaned all day long. (v. 3) It got to the point that he needed help from the only person who could lift his burdens from him, God. When he confessed “all” his sins and revealed all the bricks he had been carrying, the Lord responded by forgiving him and taking his guilt away.
God can deal with any sin, frustration, addiction, depression, illness, ideation, demonic influence, or possession. He can forgive you, give you perspective, and purpose, and take away the guilt and shame. So what are you waiting for? Why do you still rebel?
Are you being crushed under the weight of your burdens?
Reading Plan: Psalm 30, 32; Ezra 4:7, 11-24; Philemon 1:1-25; Matt. 12:33-42
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