Heaviness: Friend or Foe?

Do you ever just get a feeling of heaviness?

It comes out of the blue, but suddenly you feel like you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, like something is squeezing your heart tight, like you’re going to throw up.

No, I don’t need to see a doctor. I’m talking about spiritual heaviness. Every follower of Jesus Christ has sensed it at some point or another.

I know you’ve felt it before. I’m guessing some of you may be feeling it right now.

When facing a sense of heaviness, the temptation is to deny it, ignore it, fake it, or evade it. But I’m learning that God often uses this spirit of heaviness to remind us that it may be time to do the following:

1. Time for Searching. One of the first things to do when you sense a spiritual heaviness is to stop and pray these words: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” David understood that sin leads to heaviness, but he also understood that repentance leads to renewal. Don’t stay under the weight of unconfessed sin. Turn that burden over to the Lord.

2. Time for Listening. Fortunately heaviness isn’t always related to sin. Sometimes, God uses heaviness in my life to remind me to listen. I love the words to the song by Keith and Kristyn Getty: Speak O Lord, and renew our minds, help us grasp the heights of your plans for us. I love that. If you’re feeling heavy in your heart today, simply be quiet and listen. God may have something to say to you. Lamentations 3:28 says “Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust there may yet be hope.”

3. Time for Pleading. Hey, there’s no better time to pray than when you feel a sense of heaviness in your Spirit. God often uses that heaviness to remind you to pray for someone in need. Are you heeding the tug of the Holy Spirit? I have a friend who will call me out of the blue from time to time to let me know that she has been praying for me. The call always comes at a critical point in my walk with the Lord, and usually at a time of desperate personal need. Turn your heaviness to intercession. It will amaze you how God will work through the prayers of His people.

4. Time for Praising. One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is Isaiah 61:3. In it, God says that He gives us the garment of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness. How amazing is that? After you’ve spent some time confessing, listening, and pleading with the Lord, take a few minutes and exchange your heaviness to praise! Remember all that God has done in you through Christ, and praise Him for it!

I’m learning that heaviness is not an enemy to avoid. I’m learning that heaviness is a gift to embrace.

And by God’s Spirit I want to learn as much from it as I can. Don’t you?

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