the weight of opinion

Ever felt like you had to defend yourself to someone? A choice you made, an outfit you wore, a way of life. A child's upbringing, your 'social status', a church move, your spending habits. Seems that everyone has an opinion to offer up, but what about the unspoken opinion? The opinion that doesn't use words. The opinion that uses a shrug, a huff, a silent pause, a frowny text face, a nervous laugh. 

And we fall for it. The need to defend. It creeps up on us. Like a wet blanket right over our shoulders. It weights us down and makes us say things. Things like, 'it's more economical' or 'it's all I had' or 'it just didn't work' or 'it's what my mom did'.  

Why do we do that? Why do we let opinion weigh us down? Why do we feel the need to defend? Why do we think our thinking and decisions and upbringings are not enough? Because that's what we say when we speak from under that wet blanket. We say, loud and clear, it's not enough. We say, I need that weight! Your opinion matters! Wait. What? Since when do we need someone else to make choices for us? Since when do we need a 'gallery' weighing in on our decision making? Since when do we need a filter of opinion for the Spirit?

Gods word says that every weight that so easily entangles can be thrown off. Every entangling sin that would cause us to lose this great race. When we allow the burden of opinion to start weighing on us it affects our choices. Our decision to choose this or that. Our ability to hear clearly from the Spirit. It affects those tiny choices that should bring pleasure and yet, somehow, bring confusion and later on paralysis. If this cycle of wearing the weight of opinion continues, we will make no decisions without that comfy blamket to 'weigh in'.  

I don't know about you, but that weight is one I don't have the strength to bear. Christ has freed me from the entanglement of sin and wearing that wet blanket is like picking up my sin from the foot of the cross and throwing it on again! Gross! Forgive me Jesus! Forgive me for allowing the weight of opinion to matter more to me than the promises in your word. You are all I need. It's your opinion of me alone that matters. You call me your daughter, your beloved, your righteousness.

You call me free. Indeed. Unshackled. Unfettered. Without weights.

So, the next time you want to open your mouth with a polite way to defend your decision, don't. Let God be your defender. Stand tall and allow the righteousness of Christ within you to shine forth like the dawn.