Got Burdens?

I go to the post office for work nearly every day. Some days I only carry an envelope or two. Other days I may have several boxes. On some days the box carrying gets interesting. Between 20 pound soil boxes, light plant sample boxes and envelopes, it gets hard to hold them securely. Sometimes, when trying to open the post office door or put the boxes down, everything goes flying. If I’m not careful my frustrations will fly as my calmness flies out the door as well.

When life is a heavy load of stuff I find that I get more and more frustrated as I try to handle it all myself. God speaks to my heart and reminds me to let Him carry the load and then I can relax as all those things settle in proper order. Can you relate?

I have discovered that I might need to let some things go. How many boxes are you holding? What all are you trying to take care of? Are you barely hanging on? Are things flying wildly away around you? Do you wonder where it will all land and if you will be injured in the process? Hold on – God’s stepping in to give you a hand with all the “stuff” of life. You may be trying to make up your mind to make it on your own, but don’t leave God out of the decisions when you need Him the most. 

God wants you to know that you don’t have to keep juggling things. He wants you to know that life in Him is not always easy but you can handle it if you will give it all to Him. He speaks calming words over your life. The extreme struggle you feel is not from the Lord, but He will use it to get you to look to Him. He knows that often it is only when you are unable to do another thing that you will call out to Him, but He’s been helping you all along. He wants you to look only to Him for help, so that your life is hidden completely in Christ. That kind of life will bring you great peace and you will realize your true worth and value to Him. Juggling on gets you frustrated but walking in the light of the Lord will keep the frenzies and flusters away. 

Oh beloved, it’s never too late to release your overburdened life to God. He has shown you through the Easter promise that He is trustworthy, faithful and true. He has shown you through His Salvation that you are in His hands. He has shown you through His Word that everything you need to know about life and godliness is available to you. It doesn’t matter what other people think or do, it is your destiny to hold onto God and let Him relieve you of unnecessary burdens so you can live loved and walk in peace. The world’s message says busyness is godliness. But godliness comes flooding into us when we let God do the choosing. It is in the quietness of time spent with God that you will find the ability to handle your life’s demands and leave the choices to Him.

God loves you and He’s for you- on this you can rely. Live life and love Him and let Him walk through it with you always.

“Lord thank You for being my Help. Only when my life relies on You do I truly walk in victory and shed the burdens of life. Oh how You love me. You keep wooing me back to You. Today I give my burdens to You to order my life for Your glory and my peace. Amen.”

Psalm 94:19 When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul.

Psalm 61:2 From the ends of the earth, I cry to You for help when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the towering rock of safety.

Psalm 124:8 Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 55:22 Give your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

Jesus Will Free You of Your Excess Baggage

It’s been a long time since anyone in our immediate family has flown, but when they did they carried their baggage on board with them in a large duffle bag.  In 2008 some of the major airlines began charging fees for excess baggage. That rate has gone up continually over the years. Not all airlines charge but even those that don’t charge have a limit to the size and weight of the baggage. And the price for the heavier or larger baggage is pretty steep. Suffice it to say if you carry excess baggage these days it’s going to cost you.

Excess baggage isn’t just carried on a plane. It’s often carried by people. Even believers have their share of baggage. Some of it is carried over from the days before their commitment to Christ.  It’s a heavy load to care and it truly costs dearly to carry the weight around. Some of it is carried due to sins committed in the past. Other weighted down baggage may be marital problems, how a person was raised or even religious expectations.  The cost of carrying the excess baggage comes when you try to carry it all yourself. Imagine walking into a restaurant and carrying all your trip belongings with you. Imagine sight-seeing and having to carry that stuff with you everywhere you go.  Up mountains, over bridges. Walking down the aisle? Carrying all your excess troubles, mistakes, misunderstandings, rejections to the altar.  You quickly get a picture of what happens when the excess baggage isn’t dealt with. It enters into everything you do and everywhere you go. It’s a load no one should carry and it will cost you more than you want to pay.

God speaks to my heart: I have come to the world to lighten the sin load of everyone who comes to Me for relief. There at Calvary I set the precedent for a life that never has to be burdened with the weight of sin. Why are you still carrying that with you? Are you expecting to be able to do something with your past regrets? Hand them to me quickly before you find yourself so weighted down with sin that you cannot enter into My rest. I have also come to ransom you from the weight of rejection, fears, worry, and all the other things that people think they have to carry on with them. Everywhere you go you will need to be light for the trip so that I can speak to your heart, guide your plans and guard your mind. You were never meant to carry anything that is in the way of a burdensome load.  If you will let Me, I the Lord, will take your excess baggage, relieve you of the burden as well as the cost of carrying it around with you and give you My yoke instead. As you learn of Me you will find that My yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is light. It’s time to walk freely, be able to dance in My presence, and go where I send you. With excess baggage you are barely going to make it, but free of your baggage you will be able to soar with Eagle’s wings and scale the heights with Me.  

Oh beloved, weighed down? Feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders? Are you finding that the more you take on the harder it is to move? It’s time to give your burdens to the Lord? Your cares aren’t meant to be carried and your sins aren’t meant to weigh you down. You can be free! It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or why you’re weary, take it all to the Lord. It sounds simple and it is. God has made it so simple that as we begin to unload it all on Him we find that He just does away with it. It’s gone as far as the east is from the west. It’s in the sea of forgetfulness. He will never bring it up again and He will never try to weigh you down with it. If you feel that you must take it all up and carry it again, you can be sure that it is not the Lord requiring it of you. Your excess baggage will take a toll in your life, in your vocation, in your marriage, in your relationships, even in your fellowship with other believers, even with your own perception of yourself. These heavy weights may have been given you by others or may be built up within yourself. Excess baggage can be sin, wrong thinking, rejection, humiliation, defeated thinking, depression, discouragement or more. They can be fleshly in nature or even religious. The enemy of your soul wants you weighed down and thus useless for the Kingdom. Wherever it has come from, God will show you because God is love.  The lightening of your load by God through Christ will give you a freedom you’ve never known. It is the freedom that all creation is looking for and it’s just what you’ve been wanting. Try it today, go to God and give Him all your burdens. Begin now. The process may take a while but you will begin to feel so much lighter in mind, spirit and body as you start the process.

God loves you and He is for you. That’s why He wants you to quit paying for the excess baggage you were never meant to carry. He needs you to be free to live, love and share His love, His care and His truth all the days of your life.

John 8:36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Matthew 11:28-30 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Psalm 34:6 In my desperation I prayed, and the LORD listened; He saved me from all my troubles.

Let God Empty You of Needless Things

I bought a bigger purse so I’d have room for everything. Trouble is everything I need goes to the bottom of the huge purse! I finally got tired of digging through everything to find one small item I needed. One day I just emptied the entire contents of my purse onto the bar in the kitchen. To my amazement there was tons of stuff that came out of my purse! Receipts, deposit slips, notes, along with a billfold, a comb, a hairbrush, keys, fingernail clipper and more.  It was a mountain of stuff – no wonder my shoulder was hurting!

It was only when I completely emptied my purse that I could find what I was looking for. I decided that there was no need to put all that back in my purse and carry it around, so I left it out. Now that my purse is less full of contents, I find it much easier to find what I really need. I’m concerned though that it won’t be long until it’s all filled up again with things I just jam in there because I’m in too big a hurry or don’t have time to file it or put it away.

Life is a lot like a purse. There are many compartments and lots of room. We tend to fill our lives up with stuff and stuff our lives with things. Add another trip to the store, another ballgame to play, a date with friends, a movie, a new set of golf clubs, a new relationship, a new church, a bigger vacation.  We get so full of stuff we can’t find what we really need. We’re too busy shuffling through the mountain of activity to even enjoy the most important things in life.

It’s only when we empty ourselves of the excess that we can see the important things, what we’re really searching for clearly.  When it’s all emptied out, even though the process can be unnerving and hurtful, we find that what we really need is already there for us. We just have to be careful that when we get rid of the junk we don’t slip back into refilling our lives and losing sight of God’s best again.

Are you digging in the bag of life, searching for precious things you thought were lost? Have you been emptied out and left alone? Do you feel that there’s no hope for you and that without all the stuff you had you won’t be complete? Are you concerned that if God asks for things from you, you might be worthless, useless or less than you want to be?

Oh beloved, run to God’s Word this morning and see just how complete you are in Christ! See the magnificent jewels of His truths that are hidden beneath the junk. Pull out faith and put it on! Take out peace and let it cover you completely! Don’t fill up on junk, for it’s too heavy a burden to carry. Rather, let God empty you of needless things so that you can be filled with needful gifts and blessings from His rich storehouse. God says I AM your best choice, I AM your greatest asset, I AM your most precious item and your beloved keepsake. Let Me replace the emptiness you feel with the fullness of Me.

God loves you and He’s for you and that’s more than enough to keep you full of love joy and peace the rest of your days!

Matthew 11:28 Then Jesus said, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Psalm 119:37 Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through Your word.

Psalm 119:92-93 If Your instructions hadn’t sustained me with joy, I would have died in my misery. I will never forget Your commandments, for by them You give me life.

Genesis 22:14 Abraham named the place Jehovah – Jireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Luke 10:41-42 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Feeling Weighed Down? Give Your Cares to Him!

My children always loved collecting rocks from the area we vacationed. Every once in a while I’ll find a small pebble or a couple of rocks in a box. There’s a big collection that our son saved in a box out in the shop and it is heavy.  I guess you could call them memory stones.  I was cleaning out my car last week and found another rock – it looks like the grandkids now want to collect them. 

We gather memory rocks don’t we? Not all the stones are from pleasant places.  Some are picked up along with hurts, discouragement or sorrow.  Some are thrown at us.  We catch each one and keep them so that we don’t forget who hurt us.  The  unkind word, the impatient response, the indifferent or ignoring disregard from those we trusted.  We go home and empty our pockets of the stones and think we’re done with it.  We place them away in the closet of our heart. But let another hurtful word or an unkind gesture come our way and out comes our collection. We add to and look it all over and it becomes oh so heavy.

We cannot avoid hurts. We cannot control how others treat us, how we might be ignored or undervalued or overlooked.  We may want the best in a relationship and yet the other party wants nothing to do with us. People walk away, lie about your life and wipe their hands of us. If we gather each hurtful or hard memory up in a collection, pretty soon we’re harboring a heavy load.  We could become so enthralled with our collection that’s all we concentrate on.

But if we give those stones of remembrance to the Lord and ask Him to help us, He will lessen the hurt and take our burden from us. We were never meant to carry this load. It’s heavy and weighs us down. If unchecked, it will actually sideline us and keep us from moving forward.  God in His mercy will turn that pile of hurts, disappointments, unforgiveness, or rejection into an altar of love. If we turn those stones over in our hearts and give them to Him, the burden will be lifted as we forgive and move on. Our hearts feel better, our load is lighter and we’re filled with His mercy to go higher with Him.

Oh beloved, God loves you! He has a wonderful plan for you life! He says to discard the rocks and follow Him! His plan is oh so sweet and His desire is oh so outrageous for you! He will carry you higher than you’ve ever been and the view from the heights of His mercy and love is beautiful! Run to Him this morning and show Him your burdens, share the truth about each memory stone and let Him heal your hurts!  He loves you so much that He will discard them for you and walk with you all the days of your life! Hurts may still come, but you won’t have to load yourself down for God walks before you and His angels surround you. What an amazing Savior!

Psalm 55:22 Give your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

Matthew 11:28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

I Peter 5:7 Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.