Yesterday I used a kettlebell while exercising. It’s a unique apparatus because the weight ball is off center from its handle. Kettlebells are portable, versatile and enable a total body strength workout, as well as, aerobic stimulation. The key to proper use of the kettlebell is the grip. Most beginners grip it too tightly which can lead to straining your hand, wrist, and arm muscles. However, if you grip it too loosely the weight can control you instead of you controlling it.
Like misholding a kettebell, having the wrong grip in life can also injure you. Right now there are probably areas of your life that you are gripping too tightly and other areas that need a stronger hold. Consider for a moment whether that is the case for you. If so, you can find the right balance, but it will take God’s help.
First, ask for his wisdom and strength to let go of what is damaging you or what is keeping you from living the most for him and others. He can forgive your sin and heal every hurt. He can enable you to forgive others. He can teach you how to relate to toxic people and how to love the unlovable. He can free you from addiction and materialism. He can give you victory amidst trials. He can assure you during uncertainty and help you overcome any fears. He can make your goals more purposeful and your dreams more fulfilling.
Second, replace what is hindering you with what will spur your growth by seeking to find your greatest pleasure in pleasing God. He loves you and wants you to be with him, to be like him, and to do what he does. He has made that possible through God the Son, Jesus. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (1 Corinthians 5:21). “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2). “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17). When you lay down your life at the cross—your dreams, circumstances, relationships, doubts, and your very self, then God raises you up to a new, better, and more joyous life in Jesus.
So don’t let the weights of this world, your earthly desires, or the devil control you. Instead adjust your grip through faith by allowing God to help you handle them. “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2). At times it will feel hard to handle what comes. But don’t fear or grow weary. “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).