A Sermon I Can't Quit

One time, quite a while ago, I was jogging and listening to a sermon by Tyler Staton at Bridgetown church out of Portland, Oregon. He’s a favorite listen, if you’re curious.

One of His sentences stopped me mid-sentence and the Holy Spirit brings it to mind quite often.

Tyler said this, “Having faith means relaxing into God’s promises.”

There is something about the word “relaxing” that does something different for me. It moves my shoulders down from their regular tense position. It makes my muscles beneath my shoulder blades shake loose, widening my space to breathe much deeper breaths. And, if I dare, the word “relaxing” helps my jaw loosen and the tips of my lips begin to form a smile.

If I let my imagination run wild, relaxing gives me vision of fully resting onto the back of a lion, similar to Lucy in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Imagine with me: all the strength and all the power Lucy must have felt with her legs wrapped around fierce Aslan. Fully trusting, fully resting, wind wiping through her hair on the way toward battle. All the while, all of Lucy’s weight completely and totally held by her Lion.

I believe this is what it means to have faith in Jesus.

Unfortunately, we tend to have it backward where it almost feels as though we are carrying the lion and our backs are breaking and our shoulders are heavy. Maybe it is the work project that seems to be all-consuming. Or maybe you are in a season of grief and you are wondering when you will get just one bit of good news. Maybe it’s how your marriage has turned out, not quite what you dreamt of when you said, “I do.” Whatever it is, your body feels it and so does your soul.

But because life is fast and the world can feel hard, we just pile our situations onto our shoulders, our backs breaking at the weight of our very own worlds.

Here’s just a friendly reminder today to switch from the uncomfortable weight-bearing position to the one Jesus died to give you.

One where you get to relax into God’s promises. One where the wind wipes through your hair and you smile because you have the Lion and He is on His way toward victory.

xo Whitney

PS what weight can you give God today? Can you give it to Him in just a few sentences?