Welcome to Faithfield Woman.

This is your host, Kristin.

Today we're going to talk about what is weighing you down and what is the impact of that if we don't release those weights off of us.

Welcome to Faithfield Woman, a podcast designed for Christian women eager to deepen their faith and shine God's light in every aspect of their lives.

Each week we'll delve into practical strategies, inspiring stories and biblical wisdom to equip you with the tools you need to navigate life's challenges and grow deeper in your faith.

From finding calm in the chaos, forming deep Christian friendships, to everyday ways to connect with God, we'll cover it all.

Hi, I'm your host Kristen.

I'm an encourager, a faith led entrepreneur, a mom and a wife.

Let's be encouraged in our everyday lives as we let our faith guide us, fuel us, and fill us with God's incredible peace, wisdom and joy in our lives.

Before we dive into today's episode, I wanted to let you know about two things.

The first is I am doing a Masterclass next week, January 29th, to help you step into feeling alive again, to reignite your passion.

Because if you're feeling stuck, depleted, like life just feels empty, you don't feel the joy you used to feel.

We are going to step into a framework that will help you create a daily routine that will allow you to tap into your joy, will begin to reignite your passion for your life, and it'll let you shift your perspective.

If that's of interest to you, click the link in bio to sign up for next week's masterclass.

Also, if you didn't already participate, I still have a 10 day email challenge going on called Reignite your passion.

But it's 10 days to help you shift your mindset.

It has small exercises in it and journal prompts for you to really step in to this year.

Feeling more wonder and joy and peace in your life, understanding how you can have smaller pauses and rests.

And that is a free challenge.

So once again, click the link in the show notes and you can participate and join that 10 day challenge.

All right, here we go.

Let's dive in.

Maybe you can relate.

Maybe something's weighing you down or you're carrying something with you.

Maybe you're continuously worried about something.

Maybe you haven't forgiven someone.

Maybe you feel like the victim in your own life.

Maybe you have a hurt that's just so deep you can't let it go.

I think we can all relate to these kind of things and today we're going to Dive in deep to why what's weighing us down could be impacting our lives and our health.

So let's dive in.

All right, so the first scripture that I want to share is Psalm 55:22.

And it is one of the many scriptures that tell us that God basically wants us to not worry.

He wants us to not be anxious, and he doesn't want us to hold on to all the worries and stress and strain of our days or of this world.

And so Psalm 55:22 says, Cast your burdens on the Lord and he will sustain you.

You will never let the righteous be shaken.

Okay, so we're called to lift up our worry, our.

Our anxious thoughts, our frustrations are hurt to the Lord, and we're also called to release them.

And so I have two questions for you today.

One is, what are you carrying with you?

So write that down.

What are you carrying with you?

And you might add to that, what are you carrying with you today?

Or what are you carrying with you in this season or in this month, or, you know, just in your life?

What are you carrying with you that you don't need to have burden in you on your what is weighing you down?

What is making you feel weary in your life?

Another way to look at it, and another question similar is what are you holding on to?

So that's another one you can write down.

What are you holding on to that's not yours to hold on to?

Or what are you holding onto that is truly making you feel like you're below water, like you just can't, like you're only treading and you.

You're not thriving.

In Mark Nepo's book, the Book of Awakening, he explains us holding on to things like this.

The time has come to put our stones down where hands clutching stones can't freely drum, when hearts fisting the past can't freely sing.

And he explains a simple lesson.

As long as we clutch to one thing, do we have a stone or rail or weapon?

Our hands cannot open or reach for anything new.

And he goes on to say, it is unavoidably true.

Hand must be emptied before they can be filled anew.

It is the same with our hearts.

It is why courage day by day is necessary.

So that's the thing, folks.

When our hearts and our minds are filled with things that do not need to be there, we can't have an open heart or a fully open heart.

We can't have a mind that is set on God's love, His grace.

And we likely aren't extending that out into the world, at least not fully.

Okay, so I want to share this next idea with you.

And it's this.

Okay.

This is from.

Please.

Sorry.

Thanks from Mark Batterson.

And he goes again.

Hurt people, hurt people.

Instead of dealing with their hurt, they repress it.

Repression is like trying to keep a fully inflated beach ball beneath the surface of the water.

Those repressed feelings will surface sooner or later, usually at the most inopportune time.

We have to cast our cares on God.

Confession lets the air out of those emotions.

It's letting go and letting God forgive us.

Then we return the favor by forgiving others.

Bottom line, forgiven people forgive people.

So 70 times seven, that's how we return the favor of forgiveness.

We've shown God's amazing grace to others, and forgiving others sets us free when we forgive, said Louis Smedes.

We set a prisoner free and then discover that the prisoner we set free was less.

Without empathy, our apologies are empty.

Saying sorry without feeling sorry sends mixed signals.

Are you or aren't you sorry?

You have to own the apology.

And I think that just.

It's so clear that if we don't forgive, if we don't let go of the hurt, if we don't release the anger, release the worry, we don't release the feelings of feeling like a victim.

In our own stories, we are holding on to it.

It means our hands are fuller, hearts are closed.

And it means that we are the actual prisoner.

We are the one that's actually having the harm done to us because we're reliving the hurt, we're reliving the feelings of anger, we're reliving the feelings of what someone's done to us.

Or maybe in some cases we haven't forgiven ourselves and we have to let it go because we are just living in the past.

We're rehashing those feelings and those emotions over and over and over.

And so that is why we want to cast those burdens, those anxious thoughts onto God.

And he says, each day, you know, isn't is a new He.

It's new every day.

If we keep seeking him, we keep going to him, and we keep bringing our burdens to him, then we are able to release some of the weight we're holding on our backs and step into our life ready for a new day, ready for new, you know, new, more grace, ready for an open heart, Ready to ask the question that the psychologist Edith Eager says.

And she was a Holocaust survivor and she's worked with tons of people in her practice, and she's written several books.

But she says victims say, why me?

But she says we have to learn to shift that perspective, that mindset, and begin to ask what's next.

See, in other words, we don't want to live in the past.

We don't want to live where we continue to allow our hurt, our anger, our unforgiveness, our guilt, our shame, whatever it might be.

Remember, whether it's towards ourselves or towards others, they all hold us back.

They keep us prisoners.

And so we want to let it go.

We want to put down the burdens, put down the hurt.

We want to stop carrying them into every day, to every conversation, to every jumpiness.

In other words, we don't want to bring them into our relationships.

We don't want to bring them into our interactions because what happens is we can be triggered so quickly because we are basing our current conversation, our current interactions from a lens that is of a victim or of someone that's hurt or hasn't forgiven.

And so we are more quick to think the person we're interacting with or ourselves are someone that is going to.

Pattern will be repeated.

But if we stay there and if we keep simmering on it, that is what we're going to get more of.

In other words, we're going to see more of it.

We aren't going to be open to divine timing.

We're not going to be open to maybe seeing the best in people.

We won't be open to seeing the best in ourselves.

We want to start forgiving because it not only frees us, but it allows our future to be more of what God wants for us.

So I think that's just so powerful.

And guess the, the last thing that I wanted to share about this is just what you can do is those questions that I asked earlier.

What is weighing you down?

What are you carrying with you and what are you holding on to?

Write those questions down.

And when you have a little bit of quiet time, you can do this in one setting, or I mean one session, or you can wait, you know, write the questions down and come back to them.

Then ask yourself those questions and truly, honestly try to answer them.

Get quiet with yourself.

Close your eyes and then ask yourself those questions.

Like in your mind, even ask those questions and see what comes up for you.

Write down what comes up for you.

And if you want to take that further, what you can do is after you've, you know, maybe read a devotional or you've, you've been praying, pull back out those questions.

And once you've Written down, what comes to you?

Ask God, what does he want to show?

Show you where does he want to change your heart?

What is he seeing, you know, that you're holding on to that's weighing you down or that you're carrying with you that you don't need to?

Where does he want you to release something in your life?

It's so powerful.

If we can do this, and this isn't a one time thing like so many things, much like reading the Bible, getting in God's word regularly, we don't do it one time because it wouldn't keep us renewed, it wouldn't keep us grounded in His Word.

We have to keep coming back to His Word.

We also have to regularly, not daily ask ourselves these questions.

You know, what are we holding on to that maybe we shouldn't now be holding on to?

Or we need to let it go by forgiving someone and then also by asking God to take these things from us, to help us carry the burden or to release the burden.

So that's it for today.

I just wanted to share this with you because some of those scriptures, some of those questions really spoke to me this week and I hope that they do the same for you and I did want to share with you.

Matthew 5:23-24 as we end this episode, it says, therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you.

Leave your gift there in front of the altar first, go and be reconciled to them, then come and offer your gift.

In other words, Scripture is also telling us to reconcile our relationships, right to we get more freedom and clarity when we reconcile our relationships and let go of what we've been carrying.

And so that's just another scripture, another reminder that this is some of the important work that we need to do in our lives and regularly come back and revisit.

We want to be forgiving, we want to let go of hurt, we want to let go of our anxious thoughts, our worry, all of these things.

And it is a ongoing thing.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the episode.

If you're interested in joining the next week's masterclass, head over to the Show Notes and click the link to sign up.

If you're not able to be on the masterclass live, that's okay.

It'll be recorded and sent to you.

You also can email me questions if you have a question that you want answered.

So check out the page and see if that's an interest to you or if you haven't already participated.

There's the 10 day email challenge.

Reignite your passion and reignite your spark and rediscover yourself.

So if that's of interest to you and you haven't already done it this month, then go and sign up for that.

That is a free challenge.

It's really powerful because each day it only takes you a couple minutes to participate, but you will have the impact of shifting your perspective, opening your heart a little bit and getting a little deeper with yourself.

So if that's of interest, we hope you joined us on that.

Well, thanks again for listening to the show and if you enjoyed today's episode, we would love it if you could take a minute to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcast because it helps our show get discovered by more people.

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