What price are you paying to haul around burdens never intended for your shoulders?
I’ll never forget watching the producer sellers crisscross the streets of Hanoi. A bamboo pole sagged at their shoulders as they hauled baskets of produce to and from the open markets.
As a curious traveler, I just had to know how heavy those baskets were. So, I dodged some of Hanoi’s 5.6 million motorcycles and asked a worker if he would let me try lifting his bamboo pole. Amused, he placed the two-basket rig on my shoulders, and in an instant, I understood the cost of such work—the price their backs were paying for hauling this weighty stuff.
What price are you paying to haul around burdens never intended for your shoulders? Let me explain.
Many of us indulge in self-talk that says, “I must lug around all my problems and stagger under the weight of my burdens.” This distortion is particularly true of the troubles we’ve brought on ourselves through poor habits and sinful choices.
But there’s a much bigger, much better offer from our heavenly Father that many of us miss out on day after day. David shares it with us in Psalm 55:22, where he invites us to “Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” Is that your first response when burdens work their way into your soul?
Notice that according to this verse, nothing supernatural happens until we cast our burden(s) on the Lord. Nothing is promised or even offered to those who insist on pulling their own train, lugging their own load. We’ve got to cast that burden away first.
But what an offer this is! We cast…God sustains. Oh—and He even reminds us that with Him carrying our load, there’s no need to be shaken.
When God sent Jesus to earth to die on the cross for our wrongdoing, He took the burden of our sins from our shoulders. Incredibly, He longs to do more for us.
He wants to take the load of every burden off your soul. He’s able. He’s willing. And as the one who carried that heavy cross, He’s also experienced. So let Him!
Hey, if you found some encouragement in today’s blog, let me share more with you in a podcast conversation with Jennifer Rothschild. Just click this link to listen: https://413podcast.com/406
