Jan 19 - Agonizing Despair

January 19

Agonizing Despair

Ps 77:2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: …: my soul refused to be comforted.

Some devastating loss has fallen upon you and grief pours over you. A great opportunity is gone. You have suffered the total loss of something, or someone and the loss is permanent, irreplaceable.  Or you have learned of some unstoppable calamity that is roaring down upon you from the future. The result is you are overwhelmed with grief.  There is no remedy, no fixing your great loss, or avoiding the day of your trouble that has taken the sparkle from your eyes, the song from your lips and the joy from your heart and soul. What could be worse? 

If you were burdened down with agonizing despair and called on God day and night but had no relief from your troubles,  that would be worse.  “God where are you. I am hurting. Why don’t you answer?”  Yes that would be even worse. 

Asaph had just that experience.  In the day of his trouble he sought the Lord but was not comforted.  How can that be? Doesn’t the scripture tell us He is the God of all comfort?   (2Co 1:3)  Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 

That is the question that the psalmist asks.

Ps 77:7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? 8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? 9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.

Where is God when it hurts so bad, is the wrong question. He is where he has always been. The better question to ask is where are you when it hurts so badly?  Some years ago I was in charge of the teen group at our church. Sometimes a troubled teen would ask how they could know what God’s will was for their lives. I would tell them to ask Him, He will talk to you, but if you are playing in the alley among the trash cans you might not be able to hear Him! I never had a teen ask me what I meant by that.

There are many reasons why people are not comforted when they seek God’s help. Have you ever accepted God’s free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ His son?  Are you a child of God?  Is he your Father? If not why would anyone expect God to comfort them when they have rejected His son?

Some only turn to God in time of trouble. When the trouble is passed they forget God. “Oh God if you will get me through this I will blah blah blah”  Sure they will. The road of despair is littered with such silly broken promises.  They may not be comforted because they are not sincere. Will they try to fool God?

It is important to remember that even a sincere child of God may not be comforted. But lack of comfort does not mean lack of an answer from God.  A child saves his allowance for a bicycle, but then squanders it on silly things. When he begs for a bicycle he will not accept his dads answer. “You had money for a bicycle but you spent it foolishly. Now you will have to wait.”  The dad could make the child happy by buying them a bicycle, but knows their crying and disappointment will teach them a lesson more valuable than being happy with a new bike. The dad has answered their plea, but the child is still crying for a bike.  Sometimes God does not comfort us because of a lesson to be learned.

Today we have considered four reasons for lack of comfort; Rejecting God’s Son, insincere promises, lack of comfort does not equal lack of an answer, or there is a lesson to be learned.

We need to continue this discussion tomorrow.  If you know someone who is in despair perhaps today’s devotional will give you some insight into why they are not comforted.  May God be your comfort and stay.  God bless you gentle reader.

Jan 18 Use a Magnifying Glass

 January 18

Use a Magnifying Glass 

Ps 34:3 O magnify the LORD

Magnify the LORD?  How can we do that?  The Bible tells us of his greatness, and that He is all powerful, all knowing, all seeing.  How then can we do the impossible and magnify the LORD?. Perhaps there is a clue in the verse we are considering.

Ps 34:3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.

This is a psalm of David. Here he invites us to magnify the LORD with him.  Then he suggests that together we can exalt His name.  No I don’t see any clues here on how to do the seemingly impossible.  Dear reader, what could you do that would magnify the LORD?  Would you tell Him something he does not know? Would you go where he has not been? Could you lend your arm to increase His strength?  Could you advise Him on the best way to solve your problems? No, there is nothing we could do to magnify the LORD!

When I find a verse that seemingly asks me to do the impossible I know I do not understand what is being said. That means I need to check the dictionary for the meaning of words I think I understand and compare scripture with scripture. Let us seek the answer in scripture first.

Eze 38:23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Maybe there is a clue here. God can magnify himself so he is known in the eyes of many nations.  Maybe magnifying God is how he is seen?  Let’s check the dictionary (Websters 11^th collegiate         pg 748)  “…to have the power of causing objects to appear larger…”.  Oh, of course. Now I get it.  When we magnify something it does not get larger, it just looks bigger. And the greater we magnify the larger it appears. That is what the verse is saying. “O magnify the LORD…” Do things that make Him look larger.

Many in our world today go about their lives as though God did not exist. They do not see His handiwork, or recognize His grace and mercy.  For them God is so small as to be invisible.  

Others have differing degrees of how large God is in their lives. For some He is almost not there. For others he is seen but not in much detail. How big is your God? How can you magnify God in your daily life? First we should think more on His Mercy. That is what keeps us from getting what we deserve. Then we should think on His Grace. He gives us what we do not deserve. And finally we should become more sensitive to His daily presence and protective hand over us.  That is what Mary did.

Lu 1:46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,  

She did not magnify herself. We should follow her example and “Magnify the Lord internally”

But there is a second way we can make God appear larger. We can help others to see God in their lives. As we go about our daily affairs we should help others see God as a larger part of their lives. They may not see God except in church, or maybe never. We can make God appear larger to them by what we say and what we do. That is how God was going to magnify Himself,

Eze 38:23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself;

and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

If you spend time magnifying God in your soul, you will be so filled with all His kindness, love and mercy you will not be able to stop yourself from sharing some of that. That is what David was talking about. 

If your cup runneth over then go splash some of God’s goodness on your family, co-workers, friends and people you meet.  Help them see God in a larger way. May God help us all see Him in the beauty of His holiness.

  

Jan 17 A Small Package

January 17

A Small Package

 

Ps 117:1 ¶ O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. 2 For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.

Have you ever received a gift that was in a small package only to discover the value of the gift was much greater than how it was wrapped?  Perhaps the keys to a car, or a diamond ring. You get the idea.  A gem of scripture is found in the smallest psalm. Psalm 117 has only two verses. That’s it!  A tiny psalm consisting of two short verses. Packed in this tiny package are three huge reasons to Praise the Lord.

The Psalms were written during a time in which God’s chosen people Israel were surrounded with idolatrous nations.  God did miracle after miracle for Israel and against the heathen nations.  Most of the old testament is the history of His chosen people.  Yet when we come to Psalm 117 we find the inspired text says all nations and all people should praise the LORD. Jew and Gentile, the chosen race and strangers, those who were of Jacob’s family and those who were not should all praise the LORD.

If Christ had been sent to only the Jewish nation where would the rest of us Gentiles be? We would be of all men most miserable. Lost and without hope of salvation. But this small psalm reaches out to all. Not only all nations but for emphasis that all are included it says “…all ye people.”  WE are told to praise the LORD and here is a wonderful reason. The door to God has been swung open wide for all nations and all people. He included you and He included even me! Praise ye the LORD!

A second reason we should praise the LORD is because of His merciful kindness. The words mercy and grace are often seen in Scripture, but sometimes their meaning is muddled together. They are however, two very different words. Grace is getting something you did not deserve. God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense is a good way to spell G R A C E.

Mercy is at the other extreme. Mercy is demonstrated when we do not get what we deserve. Grace is the opposite. We get what we don’t deserve. That is why we often see both words linked together when describing God’s love for us. He is the God of grace and mercy. The greatest example of that is sending Christ to take our sins upon Him. Surely the great gift of salvation is wrapped up in these few words.  Here in an old testament verse we are told why we should praise the LORD.

…For his merciful kindness is great toward us

The third reason to praise the LORD is because he has not left us to our own imaginations of how we should live, work, play and praise Him.  He has given us His word, the Bible.

and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever

Not only has he given us His word but His promise is the truth of the LORD endureth forever.  What great comfort there is in reading the Bible and letting God speak to us. Over the centuries men have tried to destroy the Bible.  Rulers have outlawed it, skeptics have denied it, and societies have scoffed at it.  They are gone and the Bible remains.  Praise ye the LORD!

God’s word can speak to us every time we read it and meditate on it’s message. Old familiar passages often bless our hearts with new and fresh ideas we had not previously seen. When that happens we begin to understand the inexhaustible riches contained in it’s pages.

Praise ye the LORD. He included me, He extended His mercy to me through Christ, and he has given us His word. Pause for a moment and reflect on how all three of these unspeakable gifts have been wrapped into this short psalm. It is indeed a small package which contains such huge blessings for us.  Selah (think on these things)  Please take a moment to re-read this psalm and then join me in praising the LORD for including us, for Christ, and for the Bible.

O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people

Jan 16 Work Hard or Stand Still

January 16

Work Hard or Stand Still?

Php 2:12 ¶… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling

Ex 14:13 … stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, …

The correct answer is to do both, but not at the same time. There are times when God wants you to use all the resources you have. There are other times when your resources are so inadequate that He wants you to just watch Him at work.

Sometimes when people ask me about a problem they are having I ask them the following. If your ship sank and you were in a rowboat in the ocean, what should you do?  Two things; pray to God and row to shore.  There are times when we need to use our resources along with prayer to change things.  We should pray without ceasing and expect God to answer. But if you just laid on your dining room table with your mouth open and prayed that God would drop pieces of steak in your mouth you would die of starvation and the coroner’s report would list cause of death as “stupidity”.

2Th 3:10 …that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

Sometimes the answer to our prayers can be found at the end of our arms. Get your hands to work! But other times the best thing to do is stand aside, and watch what wonderful things God can do without your feeble efforts.

(A Side Note - Our opening verse “…work out your own salvation…” does not mean that we are saved by works.

Tit 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us…  )

Several years ago I was a teacher in a vocational center and wanted to leave. I tried every way I knew how to get a different job. I flew to several other cities for job interviews, I wrote dozens of letters, I checked into nearly every posting in a newsletter I received that listed jobs all over the United States. I worked hard at it for nearly 5 years. My prayers went unanswered (OK, you’re right, No! is an answer to prayer.) My efforts were worthless.  My faith did not waiver but my patience was growing thin. In my frustration I challenged God to do the improbable.

The vocational school I taught in was in an old mine building in a remote part of the upper peninsula of Michigan. The main highway went through a town about 5 miles from the vocational center. To get there you had to turn off the main highway onto a street that went through a smaller village. Then  take a side street in that village and turn off onto a dead end road that no one lived on. Down near the end of the dead end road was a sharp curve and there hidden behind mounds of mining debris was an old mine building.  My classroom was located in that building.

Back to my challenge. In a mixture of frustration and anger I prayed “OK I have tried to get out of here. It must be you want me to stay here forever. So I give up. Listen God, if you want me to leave here this is what you will have to do. Send someone down this dead end road, have them find my classroom and walk in and offer me a job.”  Then I printed up a half dozen resumes and put them in the top drawer of my desk but was convinced I would never leave.

I prayed that prayer in September and stopped all my efforts to find another job. I was spiritually standing still. Nothing happened. God was waiting to see if I meant what I said. Then, six months later two men walked into my classroom. They wanted to set up a similar vocational program at a college 6 hours away.  I opened my desk drawer and handed them my resume. They offered me a job. I started working at the college the first of April. It was the best job I ever had.  

God had wanted to demonstrate to me that he could do for me what I could not do for myself but it required me to stand still.  As you might expect I do not have much trouble trusting God. He has proven Himself faithful over and over. Praise His name!

Please excuse my long personal story. But it illustrates how God works, even with a half angry and fully frustrated man.  There are times we must use the resources God has given us. In addition to prayer we must pick up the oars and row to shore, or work for our food. Other times God wants to show us a miracle and we must stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, as Moses directed the Israelites to do when they were pinned against the shore of the Red sea and the mightiest army on earth was coming to slaughter them. God had led them to a hopeless situation to show them He was able to deliver them.

Dear reader, has God worked any miracles in your life? If so then join me in praising His Holy name. If not, it may be that you are doing too little (not using what resources God has given) or too much and are relying on only your own strength and abilities. It is sometimes difficult to know which to do. Row to shore or stand still? May I suggest you do both. Use the resources God has given you, but after a while if you cannot resolve an issue just give it over to God and stand still.  Watching God at work is a great blessing. May God bless you and give you the wisdom to work or stand still.

January 15 - Now What?

January 15

Now What Will I Do

Ge 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, … 

Do bad things happen to good people?  Yes, I am afraid that they do. Sometimes bad things happen because they are the consequences of making bad decisions. But other times it is because God is working for our benefit.  In the story of Joseph, his brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. He wound up in Egypt as a household servant. Falsely accused he was thrown in prison. The account in the last chapters of Genesis tell us he became an important government official and the same brothers who sold him into slavery came to buy food without knowing it was Joseph. Later he told them, our opening verse. You meant it for bad, but God meant it for good.

When my wife and I were attending a major state university we applied for scholarships.  The college rule was only one member of a family was allowed a scholarship and awarded it to me. My wife had to get a student loan. The middle of the first year a professor submitted an incomplete for a class I had taken. It should have been an A. The wheels in a large university move slowly and before I could get the grade corrected the incomplete grade was changed to an E and as a result I lost my scholarship. The college then awarded a scholarship to my wife. It was too late for me to get a student loan. Money was very tight and we struggled to come up with tuition money. God had always met our needs and we were perplexed why things had gotten so difficult.

The following year the grade was finally changed from an E to an A and the college reinstated my scholarship and refunded all the tuition I had paid.  The college left my wife on her scholarship because it was their mistake.  My wife and I immediately saw the hand of God working on our behalf.  In spite of the rules of a large University God had over ruled them. It was one of those “miracles” everyone needs to experience.

In Acts 16 Paul and Silas are unjustly beaten and thrown in prison. They had been faithful witnesses but God let them get beaten and thrown in an inner prison cell. Next they had their feet locked in stocks. I would have been either very sad or very angry. Sad because I thought God wasn't there for me or angry because my rights had been violated  “Hey somebody - I am innocent - get me my lawyer! - I’m going to sue”.  

But Paul and Silas did not feel awful. They sang praises to God at midnight. They sang with so much enthusiasm the other prisoners heard them. They were in prison, their feet were locked in stocks, their backs still smarted from the many strokes they had received.  And they sang.  Why weren’t they just complaining to one another about their bad circumstances, the bad things that had happened to them, the bad people who had mistreated them, and be worried about their dismal future?  They sang because they trusted God.  The magistrates wanted to punish them. But God used it for good. After the earthquake opened all the prison doors the jailor came to Paul and asked

Ac 16:30 ... Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

If singing in prison sounds crazy to you, it might be because you have not recognized when God has been there for you.  Have you ever asked him to help you in some difficulty? Or do you just jump up and try to overcome problems on your own? Perhaps you just sit and complain about circumstances, things or people and worry about your future.  

Warren Wiersbe’s book The Bumps are What You Climb On is especially useful for understanding that God sends difficulties into our lives to help us learn to trust Him more. The book title comes from a story of a young boy who was leading his sister up a rocky mountain path. She complained there were too many rocks in the path and he responded “Sure, the rocks are what you climb on”

Every difficulty in life is like a rock on the pathway.  You can become discouraged or you can use it to climb higher. What is your attitude when confronted with another problem?  Paul’s attitude was,

2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;…

January 14 -Half Truth? Or Whole Lie?

January 14

A Half-Truth is a Whole Lie.

Jer 9:3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: 

I remember when I was growing up and someone on the phone wanted to talk to a person who did not want to take the call.  “Is Charlie there?”  The person who had answered the phone would put one open hand over their eyes and reply “I don’t see them!”  Now it was true that they didn’t see them, but was it a “half truth” or a whole lie?

Webster’s defines a lie as something that is represented to be true while knowingly false – an attempt to deceive.  I like that definition. A lie is an attempt to deceive.  The best lies mix some truth and some untruth, or fact and fiction, to more easily deceive.  

Several years ago I heard of a liars club. One year the winner said when he was fishing he hooked a fish that was so large it pulled him out of the boat and across the top of the water so fast his pants caught on fire.  But no one was deceived by these “lies”. It was all in good fun.

But there are people who say things that are not true because they want to deceive the hearer.  The Bible lists several deceivers. Abraham’s family was infected with using deception.  

Ge 20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister:

Genesis 20:12 tells us she was his half sister.  But Abraham wanted them to believe that she was not his wife. That was an obvious deception that was not a half truth but a whole lie.

 Abrahams’s son Isaac used the same deception.

Ge 26:7 And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife;

Isaac had learned how to lie from his father Abraham.  Fear drove both of them to speak the same lie.  Unfortunately Isaac’s son Jacob followed his father and his grandfather’s example.

Ge 27:19 And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn;

Next Jacob has most of his sons deceive him about what had happened to Joseph.

Ge 37:20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him  :31 ¶ And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; 32 …, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no.

OK, technically they did not lie to him. But their plan was to deceive their father. Webster says “Lie-.…to create a misleading impression”    They later found out the pain of being deceived themselves when they traveled to Egypt for food and did not know they were dealing with Joseph.  Genesis Ch 43-44 record their dilemma and fear for the deception Joseph was playing on them.  The entire family used lies, deceits, and falsehoods when they were fearful or wished to keep the truth from someone.  Unfortunately things are not much better now.

It seems that lying is expected, accepted, and universal in the world today. Not everyone speaks lies, but lying is more common than it should be. So is the lesson for us today to not tell lies. No, I assume you do not tell lies.  (If you do…(gasp!) …stop it!)

Zec 8:16 These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour;

The lesson is we should be careful in this world of deception and misinformation, especially when it comes to spiritual things. The commercial world wants us to believe that things bring happiness.  Governments want to decide what is moral, and our culture wants us to believe Bible based religion is bigotry.  Be like the Bereans who searched the scriptures to see if these things be so.  Do not let lies from the government, advertising, or the culture diminish your Biblical principles.  Our lesson today is a simple one.

Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

January 13 -Stop - Wrong Way!

January 12      

Stop – Wrong Way

 Jon 1:3 … and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish:…

 A humorous story is about a lady who heard on the news that there was a driver going the wrong way on the expressway. Her grandfather was coming for dinner so she called to warn him to be careful. “Grampa, someone is driving the wrong way on the expressway” and he responded “What do you mean someone?  They are all driving the wrong way!”

Grampa thought he was going the right way. It was not deliberate.  He had not planned to do it. But Jonah went down to Joppa on purpose.  He was deliberately running from the Lord. I wonder how fast or how far you have to run to escape from God?  OK we need some more information.

Jon 1:1 ¶ Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it;

 for their wickedness is come up before me.

Why did God chose Jonah for that job?  2 Kings 14:25 tells us Jonah, the Son of Amittai, was a prophet.   “… according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher. “

A prophet's job was to go tell people what God had said. Telling Jonah to cry out against Ninevah was not an unusual request, but it was a an especially difficult thing for Jonah for several reasons. First it was in “enemy” territory. Ninevah was the capitol city of Assyria. Assyria caused great grief to the Hebrews. The Assyrian army was especially cruel. They enjoyed impaling their victims on stakes, or beheading them, or burning cities with people in them. The Hebrews both despised and feared the Assyrians. Jonah knew the Assyrians were steeped in idol worship and wanted God to pass judgement on those disgusting, idol worshipping, cruel and hated Assyrians.

To get a better understanding of what God had asked we need to move it to present day events. It would be like telling you to go to North Korea and stand on the steps of the capitol and tell the president of North Korea and his army that they were sinners, and ungodly and idol worshippers and God was going to destroy them unless they repent and become Christians and be nice. Or going to the middle east and doing the same with militant Muslims. Forget Allah, worship Jesus. It sounds like a suicide mission to me.  

But fear was not the reason Jonah did not do what God had told him to do. Jonah 4:1-2 tells us that after God had spared the city Jonah did not rejoice but was very angry.  Jonah hated the Assyrians so much he wanted them to suffer the judgment of God, not to repent and be spared. When God told him to go cry against Ninevah for their wickedness, Jonah knew that God would not destroy them if they repented.  Jonah had no intention of telling them to repent.  He wanted God to judge them. They deserved it!

Jonah did not do what God asked. But he didn’t just ignore God, he responded by going the wrong way. Ninevah was about 450 miles to the northeast from Jonah’s home town, Gathhepher.  But instead of heading east he planned to go west, as far as he could, which was Tarshish a seaport in Spain! Jonah did not grab the first boat he saw. He already knew he was heading to Tarshish, which was the end of the known world at that time, and looked until he found a boat headed there.  Did Jonah believe that the God of Israel was confined to only operating in the holy lands? Did he think going to the end of the earth would let him escape from the presence of the LORD?  Whatever he was thinking, he was going in the wrong direction as fast and as far as he could.

Today let us ask ourselves. In what direction are we going?  Are we ignoring God or perhaps running from him.  If you are running from God where will you go?  How far will you run? Has God told you to do something and instead of ignoring Him you have rebelled and done the opposite? 

 

Because you are reading this I doubt you are running away from God. While this devotion may not directly apply to you, perhaps you know someone who is running from God. Has God brought a person to your mind because he wants you to go to that person and speak to them about the Lord. Perhaps you do not want to speak to whomever God has laid on your mind. You could try to avoid them so you wouldn't have to say anything to them. But if you did that, then, yes, you would be going in the wrong direction yourself.  The lesson from Jonah is easy to understand but may be difficult to do. May we seek wisdom and strength from above to continue in the right direction.   
            Thank you for reading these devotionals. Please send any feedback to me at
davidwiseley@gmail.com. I welcome your comments and even (gasp) criticism!

January 12 - Heavy Burdens

January 12

Heavy Burdens

Mt 11:29 Take my yoke upon you…..and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

A missionary from South America explained how burdens were handled in the Indian tribe he worked with. The tribe grew sweet potatoes. At harvest time the potatoes would be loaded into net like bags with head straps and carried down to the village a few miles away. Women carried the 100 pounds of potatoes while the men walked along with a machete for protection. The missionary sat with the men one night around a campfire and asked why only women carried the bags of potatoes. There was shocked silence! Finally one of the tribal leaders spoke. “What? You are a man of God and do not know? When God made the woman he gave her the bones of a mule. A man could hurt himself carry heavy loads” 

The tribal leader was partially correct, in that a person could hurt themselves by carrying heavy burdens. But he was talking about physical burdens and not spiritual burdens. Perhaps the heaviest burdens are emotional, mental and spiritual.  How goes it with you friend? Are you suffering under a heavy burden. It is not a new problem and you are not alone. Just think of all the hymns that mention burdens. –Burdens are lifted, I must tell Jesus, Leave it there, Tell it to Jesus, etc.

People can hurt themselves by bearing heavy spiritual burdens.  I see lots of Christians who are good God fearing people who are burdened down with care. They are worried about an unsaved spouse, wayward children, health issues, financial woes, and the general cares of this degenerating world. Each generation seems to lose more of the ethics and spiritual awareness that used to exist. Some days we are almost overwhelmed with additional burdens being piled on the mountain of care we already have.  Many of us can appreciate what the Psalmist had to say about trouble and burdens.

Ps 38:6 I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.  

Ps 77:3 I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.

And in addition to our own burdens we are told to add other people’s burdens to our own!

Ga 6:2 Bear ye one another's burdens….

Is this what being a Christian is all about; Feeling burdened all the time?  NO!- Not at all.  

Mt 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Mt 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

How can He be talking about a light burden and an easy yoke? Doesn’t He understand all my burdens are heavy?  Well, yes He does. What we fail to understand is if we have heavy burdens they are self-imposed.  Christ never intended for us to be heavily burdened.  Then why are we?  We have done it to ourselves by not having the faith to trust God to care for things we cannot control.  Taking on worries is the evidence that we won’t trust God and accept His will. Gentle reader I do not mean to be harsh, nor insensitive to your problems. Some Christians are called to endure much. But God’s grace is sufficient.  Christ can give you peace and happiness in the worst circumstances.

I remember hearing Richard Wurmbrand, the author of Tortured for Christ, speak about his experiences in a communist prison.  He was beaten almost daily for preaching the Gospel. But he was happy. How can that be? He said they were forbidden to preach, but they loved to preach, and the guards loved to beat them. So everyone was quite happy!

An old hymn says “…take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there.”  Too often we take our burdens to the Lord and then pick them back up and take them with us because He may not take care of them the way we want. We have to do it ourselves. We know we should trust Him but....!

If you bare heavy burdens it may take some time for you to learn to leave them at the Masters feet, trust Him to care for all according to His will. That does not mean you forget them, or stop praying about them. Is the Christ you worship big enough to care for your problems?  Then leave them with Him. Stop carrying them about with you every day and everywhere. Remember heavy burdens are self-imposed.