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「我們....就當放下各樣的重擔，脫去容易纏累我們的罪，存心忍耐，奔那放在我們前頭的路程。」（聖經希伯來書十二章 1 節）
有很多重擔本身並不是罪，但是會叫基督徒分心，成為他們長進的障礙。其中最有害的是灰心。灰心實在是一個拉我們往下的重擔。
以色列人不得進入應許之地的原因就是發怨言；聖經民數記第十四章第二十九、三十節訴我們：「凡....向我發怨言的，必不得進我起誓應許叫你們住的那地。」一點點鳴不平的慾望，一點點不知足的慾望，常會造成叛逆大罪。所以我們永遠不當讓我們自己有一點點自由，來疑惑神在凡事上對我們的慈愛和信實。
我們很容易流入疑惑，懷抱不平，猜想神已經棄絕我們，我們的盼望即將破產....讓我們拒絕這一切思想，因為它們的目的是要叫我們失望，讓我們拒絕一切叫我們不快樂的思想。我們不能感覺喜樂的時候，讓我們「以為....喜樂」（聖經雅各書一章 2 節），憑信心來喜樂；這樣，神必 叫我們的「以為」變成事實。── 選
魔鬼有兩個最大的詭計。一個就是叫我們失望；一個就是叫我們疑惑：並且斬斷我們與父神之間的信心連索。當心啊！不要被牠的詭計欺騙了。
喜樂！一個喜樂的靈能使我們的心合調，使撒但不敢前來彈奏──因為心弦太熱的時候，充滿了屬天的電力的時候，會使撒但的手指燙痛。
應當盡力遠避憂鬱，好像遠避撒但一樣；但是多少時候，我們在大道上，遇見了它，它便釘住我們，直釘得我們的心變色。
憂鬱會叫凡事變色；它會使一切東西變得「不可愛」；它會使未來的希望淪入黑暗；它會剝奪人們一切的熱望，鎖住人們一切的能力，給人一個精神上的麻痺。
一個經歷很深的信徒告訴我們說：「喜樂能使工作順利；當我們戴上喜樂的翅膀時，我們的工作也會做得迅速了；憂鬱是剪去這種翅膀的；換言之，憂鬱能挪去我們工作的車輪，使我們的車輪像埃及人的車輪一樣，脫落難行。」──選
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"Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." (Heb. 12: 1.)
There are weights which are not sins in themselves, but which become distractions and stumbling blocks in our Christian progress. One of the worst of these is despondency. The heavy heart is indeed a weight that will surely drag us down in our holiness and usefulness.
The failure of Israel to enter the land of promise began in murmuring, or, as the text in Numbers literally put it, "as it were murmured." Just a faint desire to complain and be discontented. This led on until it blossomed and ripened into rebellion and ruin. Let us give ourselves no liberty ever to doubt God or His love and faithfulness to us in everything and forever.
We can set our will against doubt just as we do against any other sin; and as we stand firm and refuse to doubt, the Holy Spirit will come to our aid and give us the faith of God and crown us with victory.
It is very easy to fall into the habit of doubting, fretting, and wondering if God has forsaken us and if after all our hopes are to end in failure. Let us refuse to be discouraged. Let us refuse to be unhappy. Let us "count it all joy" when we cannot feel one emotion of happiness. Let us rejoice by faith, by resolution, by reckoning, and we shall surely find that God will make the reckoning real. -- Selected.
The devil has two master tricks. One is to get us discouraged; then for a time at least we can be of no service to others, and so are defeated. The other is to make us doubt, thus breaking the faith link by which we are bound to our Father. Look out! Do not be tricked either way. --G.E.M.
Gladness! I like to cultivate the spirit of gladness! It puts the soul so in tune again, and keeps it in tune, so that Satan is shy of touching it -- the chords of the soul become too warm, or too full of heavenly electricity, for his infernal fingers, and he goes off somewhere else! Satan is always very shy of meddling with me when my heart is full of gladness and joy in the Holy Ghost.
My plan is to shun the spirit of sadness as I would Satan; but, alas! I am not always successful. Like the devil himself it meets me on the highway of usefulness, looks me so fully in my face, till my poor soul changes color!
Sadness discolors everything; it leaves all objects charmless; it involves future prospects in darkness; it deprives the soul of all its aspirations, enchains all its powers, and produces a mental paralysis!
An old believer remarked, that cheerfulness in religion makes all its services come off with delight; and that we are never carried forward so swiftly in the ways of duty as when borne on the wings of delight; adding, that Melancholy clips such wings; or, to alter the figure, takes off our chariot wheels in duty, and makes them, like those of the Egyptians, drag heavily.
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