Notes of Faith February 8, 2024
When Burdens Are Too Burdensome
I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.
— Numbers 11:14
Moses boldly spoke these very honest words to the Lord: the Israelites were far too big a burden for Moses to bear. God responded to Moses’ weariness by assigning additional people to carry the load, specifically seventy elders who could help Moses lead. God heard the cry of Moses and acted.
Many of us carry burdens, and the biggest burden we may find ourselves carrying is people with all their burdens.
Did you know that God didn’t design us to carry even our own burdens?
We are to give our cares and concerns to the Lord. So why do so many of us spend our lives carrying not only our burdens but also the burdens of others? You don’t have to.
Know that God sees you just as He saw Moses. God hears your cries. The Almighty God will carry your burden and relieve you of the heavy burdens that you are carrying for others. Let Him — with relief and gratitude.
Lord, I’m weary. I’m so tired of my own burdens and from my burdens, and I can barely handle the weight of other people’s problems. Help me! Amen.
God didn’t design us to carry our burdens.
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. — 1 Peter 5:7
Has anxiety bothered you this week? Have deadlines and to-do lists increased stress like bunnies multiplying in springtime? Have you noticed that the older you get, the more anxious you become? If you answered yes to any of those questions, look again at Peter’s reminder of a very simple (but hard to do) solution: casting. To cast is to throw something with such strength that you don’t expect to have that object returned. Casting your anxiety, then, is an act of surrender.
You can safely cast your cares on Jesus because He loves you.
He is not sitting in Heaven tsk-tsking you for being needy.
No, Jesus willingly bears your burdens. Compelled by His great love for you, He wants to take those worries and concerns from you. So your job is to let Him do His job. Pray. Tell Him about every single source of stress in your life. It’s time to let your fear go into the capable hands of your Friend.
Jesus, please help me surrender my anxieties to You. I am so grateful that You love me and will take them from me, amen.
Excerpted from The Beautiful Word Devotional, copyright Zondervan.
There are so many things to be worried about, things that occupy our time and energy. Yes, we can and should hand the stress over to the Lord, but that does not mean that we sit back and do nothing. God leads us in decisions that we need to make, how to handle next steps, moving forward, not lazily sitting and doing nothing. We must act on the Word of God and the principles that He gives in the Scriptures. We must listen to Him in prayer (hard to do) and through this intimacy know exactly what we are to do and say in any given situation.
Pastor Dale