I once saw this preacher give a demonstration using a heavy backpack to illustrate how we walk around weighted down by all of our burdens when Jesus is walking right beside us trying to “lift” those burdens from our shoulders.

It made me think about how we get so used to trying to handle things ourselves, that we don’t know how to really rest in God. And that doesn’t mean that we will never be anxious, or nervous, or afraid. It means that when we do begin to feel those things we can “cast our cares” on Him, and allow Him to carry our burdens. But, I think a lot of us feel that we are not being good stewards when we do that though, right? Surely we must not be managing our lives well, because we shouldn’t still have so many burdens. And besides that…it’s just rude to put your problems on someone else…even God.

But, that doesn’t make sense. God tells us to put our cares on Him. That’s what we’re supposed to do. We can’t go through this life alone, and we shouldn’t feel we have to. That’s a trick of the enemy. Sometimes, as Christians, we make these man-made rules that we can’t even maintain, and that causes us to have a pharisee mindset. Pharisees in the Bible were strict about following the letter of the law, but even they couldn’t keep up with it. Our problem is that we keep trying to relegate God to the same category that we place man. We believe that putting all our cares on God is like “copping out,” or getting God to do the things that we should actually be doing ourselves. But God expects us to bring our burdens to Him. He knows that we need Him, and He loves us enough to wait for us to figure it out.

In Psalm 34:19 it says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” If that is so, then why are we struggling through trying to do something we were never made to do when we can just let God be God in our lives. Then trust Him with all of our “stuff.” 

Remember that He who holds the plan…holds our hand.

Until next time…

Be blessed