God Speaking

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ”

(Galatians 6: 2)

The word “burden” even has an air of heaviness when we say it, and the immediate thought is something very heavy and we even get a mental picture of someone staggering while carrying a heavy load. The extension of the word, burdensome, sums up our mental picture. When I was doing some research on what the word meant, I found an interesting description of what the word meant long ago, to lay a burden against a person, implied that a court charge had been laid against that person. When one of us today feels burdened by life it can also feel like a charge of some sort or other is hanging over our heads, something worse, looming over us about to happen.

I learnt last week how powerful that verse, urging us to carry one another’s burdens, can be when we are willing to share what is weighing us down. I am struggling with a burden, at the moment, and I have a friend who is struggling with an entirely different burden, but when we agreed to meet for coffee and shared with each other, it was amazing the effect on both of us as we both found a sympathetic listener and could be honest about our feelings. We both left after the coffee feeling that load had become much lighter.

Jesus is very much aware of how life can burden us and knows that carrying that burden can result in great weariness and is willing to carry that load for us.

“Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11: 28)

Sometimes we find it difficult to give up that burden, even lapsing into thinking the effort of releasing our burdens to someone else requires too much effort on our part and end up suffering the burden which in time becomes even heavier than before, The Lord is the perfect one to begin sharing what is really troubling us and the Psalmists remind us that burdens need to be shared daily, giving them over to God every morning as he is ever ready to help us carry the load;

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour, who daily bears our burdens.” (Psalm 68: 19)

Sometimes one of the heaviest burdens we carry can be those we saddle ourselves with and one of the common ones is guilt. We feel we don’t live up to other’s expectations and feel that we are failing the Lord in some way. God’s law was never given to burden us down, but to help us to lead full lives the way God had designed us to live. In Johns’ first letter he assures believers that God’s laws were never intended to be burdensome;

“This is love for God to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.” (1 John 5: 3)

Getting rid of some of our burdens is often hard to do in our own strength, but one of my favourite verses offers us divine help, we just need to ask.

“So do not fear, for I am with you, do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strength you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous hand.” (Isaiah 41: 10)