I once read a story of a man driving a wagon along a country road. He came upon a man walking on the road and struggling under the weight of the load he carried. He invited the man to climb up beside him upon the wagon seat. The traveler gladly did so, but the driver noticed that he continued to shoulder the load. He said, "Friend, please feel free to lay that load down upon the wagon bed," to which the traveler replied, "Oh no sir. You've been kind enough to offer me a ride. I don't want to add to the load that you're already carrying. I'll just bear it myself." This may seem absurd to you and I, but would you consider how often we do the very same with the Lord?
Scripture exhorts us to "Cast your burden upon the Lord for He cares for you." We may give a hearty "Amen" to this, but how often do we go along with Him, all the while continuing to bear the heavy weight of our cares and needs? Jesus invites us, commands us to give them to Him, whose "yoke is easy and whose burden is light," but we go on shouldering them all the same.
In my life I've found that I have little trouble giving Him the great and crushing impossibilities to Him. I know that they're beyond my ability to carry and solve. I know I can't manage them and that He can. My stumbling involves my insisting on carrying the weight of those things that I think I can handle and manage. Things that, bit by bit, end up crushing me under the weight of their load. They're not the BIG troubles, they're the small ones. The ones I'm sure I can handle and figure out. We may know that the old saying, "God helps those who help themselves" isn't in the Bible, but that doesn't keep us from living like it's one of His foremost commands. So we go along, picking up the "rocks and pebbles" of life's stresses and cares one by one and dropping them in our journey bag. Their small individual weight eventually grows to a heavy and crushing one. We keep looking at them as small things, not really important enough for Him, Things we run all over, wearing ourselves out trying to handle them all, while right there with us is the Lord, wanting to take them all from our hands. Hands that have a death grip on matters seemingly insignificant in themselves, but that will bring about our own death, if not physically, then certainly mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. They exhaust us.
There's a song whose lyrics really speak to me. It's titled "Traveling Light." It goes, I was doubling over, the load on my shoulders was a weight I carried with me every day. Crossing miles of frustrations and rivers a raging, picking up stones I found along the way. I staggered and I stumbled down the pathways of trouble, I was hauling those souvenirs of misery. And with each step taken, my back was breaking till I found the One who took it all from me."
There's another lyric, an old one that goes, "Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near." Come to One who has borne the weight of your sin and so is able to bear the weight of what concerns your life. We cannot bear our burdens, whether great or small, in our own strength. They'll destroy us. Come to One who calls you to Himself. Bring yourself, your cares....your stones and your pebbles, and lay them at the foot of His cross. Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Blessings,
Pastor O
Pastor O
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