{Kinda funny…I read today’s One Year Bible reading yesterday, so today I’m posting on something from yesterday’s passage (sorry for those following along) 🤪}
Have you heard of the term, “dead weight”? It means to carry that which has no benefit, keeps you from your potential & has the potential to lead you to your own demise.
It’s derived from a cruel punishment created by the Roman Empire. They’d literally strap a dead body to the bare back of a criminal, forcing them to carry that maggot-infested corpse everywhere they went.
Awful, right?
Well, it gets worse. Eventually, the corpse began to break down & the decomposition process oozed poison all over the carrying criminal. The man became sicker with each passing day until he died a stench-filled death from that dead weight on his back.
Talk about a visual!🤢
That’s what popped up from the memory banks as I read Proverbs 15:24:
The path of the godly leads upward for the wise; they leave the grave behind.
It’s hard to get to our destination carrying dead things behind us, on us or even in our hearts!
I did it for years! I was deeply hurt by someone close & carried the dead weight of bitterness, resentment & unforgiveness as if it were a dear friend.
I’d massage the memories, reigniting the fire of hatred in my heart, over & over & over again. It was exhausting & I’m sure the rank smell of rotting flesh inside my unhealed heart could be smelled from miles away!😳
I’ll never forget the freedom that fell when I finally offered forgiveness. I’d been battling a physical condition for over 3 months-had 2 spinal taps in the process trying to determine the source of pain.
Quite literally, the day I finally wrote a letter of forgiveness & placed it in the mailbox, all ailments left my body! Like, I shut my mailbox, turned to painfully shuffle my way back to the house & the pain immediately left!
Dead weight lifted as I lifted the person who hurt me up in prayer, audibly forgiving them for what they did & for the effects of it, releasing them from the consequences of their sin & even blessing them to receive their own healing.
We all know that hurt people, hurt people.
We can stop the cycle of hurt by refusing to carry the dead weight of unforgiveness. Choose today to leave the grave behind. Drop the dead weight so you’re free to experience resurrection life!
May 21st One Year Bible Readings
1 SAMUEL 29:1-31:13
JOHN 11:55-12:19
PSALM 118:1-18
PROVERBS 15:24-26
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