Lay down your counterfeit crosses

Empathy can be a gift—

a holy echo of God’s heart placed within you.

But like any gift, unguarded, it can become a gateway… A cracked door where burdens slip in like smoke, and suddenly you’re choking on sorrows that were never yours to bear.

There is a difference—

between discernment and entanglement.

And too many have confused compassion with codependency, and presence with responsibility.

Just because you feel it,

does not mean you’re meant to carry it.

The enemy is a deceiver,

and his strategies are subtle.

When he can’t shatter your heart with pain,

he’ll smother it with pressure.

He’ll counterfeit divine assignments,

drowning you in the weight of people God never called you to rescue.

Let this be your awakening:

You are not the Savior—

you were never asked to bleed for anyone.

You were called to intercede,

not internalize.

When every room you walk into shifts your spirit,

and every person leaves you feeling poured out and dry, that’s not just empathy—it’s an open door. The enemy traffics in emotional overload,

because he knows the heart overloaded is the heart confused.

Guard your gates,

filter your feelings through the filter of truth.

Because empathy is not a fruit of the Spirit—

but self-control is.

Peace is. Discernment, anchored in truth, is.

Let your heart remain soft,

but your spirit be sober.

Learn to discern atmospheres

without absorbing their weight.

You can sit with someone in the fire

without setting yourself ablaze.

You can care without collapsing.

Let truth lead you—

not emotion.

Let the Spirit guide you—

not the sway of every room.

Cling to the truth

until your feelings bow to it.

And above all,

remember this:

You are not called to carry every burden—

only the ones He asks you to.

And His yoke?

It is easy.

His burden?

It is light.

Anything else is not your cross.

It’s a counterfeit.

Lay it down.