Force - Basic Physics - Need a Better Understanding

You are exerting a force. You are exerting a force that holds the object motionless against the acceleration of gravity. If you were to release that force, the object would freely fall.

Einstein considered acceleration due to motion, and the acceleration of gravity as equivalent, because a physicist standing in a windowless, sealed room could not determine if the room was being accelerated of the room was on the surface of a planet.

Rap

If you are holding a lead weight motionless, that means that there is no NET force. You are putting a force upwards. Gravity is putting the same force downwards. You add the two together and you get zero force (and zero acceleration).

Max is exactly correct.