Recent days have involved conversations with burdened leaders, burdened with the responsibility, burdened with the challenges of helping people deal with tough life situations, burdened with the ongoing consequences of sin. I’ve listened and at times wept when these “shepherds” of souls have unburdened their hearts which are at the point of breaking.
Praise be to the LORD, the God if Israel, who daily bears our burdens. Thank God we have a burden-bearing God. Scriven wrote so well, “O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” God is the great lifter of burdens as we spread it all out before Him. Isaiah notes that even young men can fall under the burden upon their shoulders, but “those who hope in the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
But even in carrying our burdens to God in prayer, we are grateful that God supplies us with help through others who help to carry the burden. Never say “I’ll pray for you,” if you really don’t mean this. Why not pause, right there, right then, and commit this brother of sister to the LORD.
O may our great Burden bearer sustain my burdened brothers and sisters in Christ. This is my prayer!
