The army of Alexander the Great was advancing on Persia. At one critical point, it appeared that his troops might be defeated. The soldiers had taken so much plunder from their previous campaigns that they had become weighted down and were losing their effectiveness in combat. Alexander immediately commanded that all spoils be thrown into a heap and burned. The men complained bitterly but soon came to see the wisdom of the order. Someone wrote, “It was as if wings had been given to them—they walked lightly again.” Victory was assured.
As soldiers of Christ, we must rid ourselves of anything that would hinder us in the conflict with our spiritual enemy. To win, we must “lay aside every weight” that would drag us down and rob us of our strength and endurance. The watchword must be: Off with the weight!
How many of us are saying those 4 little words in a different context? I know that I certainly put on weight during lockdown and needed to do something about it—so “off with the weight.” But we all need to remember that we have a constant battle to fight with the devil and we need to be on guard all the time. The world around us can add to our daily burdens and we need to ask God to help us to throw off the weight of the world before it drags us down.