"But It's Free!"
Have you ever tried to give away something; you might remember how hard it was to get someone to take something useful that was absolutely free!
No matter how hard you tried, you just couldn't get anyone to take it! Something you had purchased and enjoyed had now become a burden to you. How come you couldn't give it away? You may have been thinking,"Why doesn't anyone else want this? I enjoyed it for many years!" But it seemed like nobody else appreciated it like you did.
Now you were going to have to figure out what you were going to do with it. Well, now we have the Veterans store or Salvation Army to call and they'll come pick things up. When they finally get to your house and take it away it is such a relief to finally have the things that were in the way gone; those things that left us feeling like we had no choice but to keep them because nobody else would take them from us, no matter how hard we had tried!
What a relief! Just imagine for a minute what it would feel like if the Veteran store came back the next week with your sofa or refrigerator and put it back on your porch. When you asked them what they were doing, they said, "We couldn't get rid of this so we decided that we didn't want your burden to become our burden! After all, you are the one who this has belonged to for so many years and we just feel like it's only fair that you keep it!
Boy! Wouldn't that be a disappointment? All of a sudden you are stuck with this thing that nobody else will take off of your hands!
That is exactly how we feel often times in life when we are stuck with things and situations that nobody else wants to deal with.
Sometimes it is a spouse or ex-spouse that will not help out with the financial responsibilities; it may be cleaning up after children that continually make messes; it may be the the chore of making dinner and cleaning up afterward every day; it could be walking the dog three times a day that everyone wanted but won't take care of now or it might even be a position at church or work that you were volunteered for but no one else is interested in being a part of. You carry this load with you and it's just more than you feel you are able to bear!
It could be most anything that we have in our lives that others expect us to take the responsibility for but aren't willing to help with or relieve us of from time to time.
You might even be thinking more that you need relieved of this thing permanently! You weren't suppose to have this thing in the first place! Why do I have this while it seems everyone else has something better; they have things that are fun; they have things with little or no responsibility it seems?
Earlier in life I was a full-time carpenter for about ten years and I couldn't go anywhere without someone asking me if I could fix something. It seemed almost always, friends saw me as their opportunity to get something repaired while we were there at their home for socializing. Of course, I wasn't going to say "no" when they would ask; as a matter of fact, it was pretty neat to be able to fix something that had been a bother to them for so long! In time though, it became expected of me whenever we would go to our friends to hang out, I would be asked to bring my tools.
It became a real burden! I never had time to just relax and socialize with friends! The biggest problem I had with it was nobody else would even consider pitching in to help!
We're talking all freebie work here! I let myself get right into the middle of something that I felt totally obligated to do because I had been doing it for so long. Was it right for them to expect it of me? Probably not. But they did and they would ask me over and over again. They had no idea how I was feeling about this because I would stay calm and do what I had to do to help them out. Finally the day came when I told everyone that I didn't do this kind of work anymore. I had moved into management levels of construction and I didn't carry tools around anymore! Nope! That didn't work either! They knew I had the experience and the tools so they would just laugh and say something like, "So you've forgotten everything you knew before?", as though they didn't want to believe for a moment that maybe I didn't want to do this anymore.
Yes, the thing I had enjoyed for the first year or two had now been a burden for about eight years and I couldn't shake it off of me! Every time I thought it was history, I'd get another phone call from someone. I even made out an invoice for one couple we knew and they laughed and said that they wouldn't have called me if they could have afforded to pay for it!
I no longer have these people calling me because I eventually took this burden and placed it in the hands of my Savior. God says he will take our burdens and sustain us and that's what I did. God gave me the nerve and the peace to tell thee people that I could no longer do this and I lost some "friends" and I didn't get as many invites for coffee or dinner but it was the best thing I could have ever done! It didn't happen over night though! It took time and God was also using this burden to teach me to depend on him for my sustenance.
Let's read a verse in Psalm fifty-five,
Psalm 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
When I first read this verse I tried to figure out how to do this; how to cast my burden on the Lord. Every time I had tried to cast it on the Lord and walk away, I wouldn't get more than ten steps it seemed before that burden would be right back in my arms again!
Have you experienced this? I say, "Lord, take this burden from me! I can't take it anymore!" and I find some relief at that moment but by the time I get up and go to the other end of the house I am feeling the burden weighing me down again. What in the world was I suppose to do?
I finally figured out something and it has meant the world to me! I finally realized that the only way I could cast my burden on the Lord was to cast myself on the Lord! That is when the rest of the verse made more sense to me!
"and he shall sustain you: he will never allow the righteous to be moved."
Wow! Is that strong or what? That is absolutely the greatest news I had ever seen before! If I cast myself on the Lord, he will carry me and keep me healthy(sustain me) and he will not allow me to be crushed or drug down or pushed from side to side by this burden I had been carrying myself (to be moved).
You may be thinking, "But it says the righteous. How do I do it if I'm not righteous?" Let me make something clear here! The Bible says that there isn't a single one of us that is good but, we are made righteous when we accept Gods forgiveness by the blood that was shed and the life that was given for us on the cross; His Son Jesus. We have been made righteous in His sight regardless of our past once we receive His grace on our lives and His mercy endures forever!
If you haven't accepted this, I encourage you to do this today and to not delay another day! It is there for your good and you too will be able to cast yourself along with your burdens on the Lord God and He will sustain you too!
If you have accepted this gift of God, "What are you waiting for?" Cast yourself on Him and let God carry you and care for you so your burden won't get you down and wear you out! It is as easy as a prayer!
Let's pray,
My God Almighty, I come to you today with some burdens and I am so tired of carrying them around every day of my life. I have tried to give them to you in the past and I keep finding I still have them and I don't understand why. I know that it is a responsibility that I have been taking all by myself as no one else has offered any help, but I need your help Lord! I desperately need you to carry this weight! I cast myself onto you Lord because this burden is attached to me right now and I want you to carry me just like I carry my child when she is tired and weary. Thank you Father for your love and your sustaining power in my life today! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment