It’s Not The Thing…It’s the Best Thing
Back before the pandemic, our group ministered at a local rehabilitation center. The clergy who spoke gave 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 was powerful. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that’s the case…then a demonstration is worth 100,000!
We get so used to trying to handle things ourselves, that we don’t know how to rest in God. And here’s the thing…resting in God 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, a lot of us feel that we are not being good stewards when we do that. Surely, we must not be managing our lives well, because we shouldn’t still have so many burdens. And besides that…it just doesn’t seem right to put our problems on someone else. But, it’s not a bad thing to put our burdens on God…it’s the best thing.
We can’t keep going through this life alone. Sometimes, as Christians, we make these man-made rules that we can’t even maintain, and it keeps us in a place of defeat. We keep trying to make God like one of our friends. And if your friends are anything like mine…sometimes they are all in, and let’s face it…sometimes they’re not.
We think that putting all of our cares on God is like “copping out,” or getting God to do the things that we should be doing ourselves, but that’s not how it is with God. He actually wants 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.” So, why are we struggling through trying to do something we were never meant to do?
The best thing we can do is to let God be God in our lives, and to trust Him with all of our “stuff.” Then all we have to do is remember that He who holds the plan…holds our hand.
And nothing will ever change that.
Until next time…
Be blessed.