God wants to help you bear your burdens. You have a heavy load, I know, but God has the strength that you do not. He desires for you to trust Him fully with your trouble.
Maybe you have heard it said that God will not give you more than you can bear. This is not true. The weight on your shoulders is simply more than you can handle alone.
People will quote 1 Corinthians 10:13 to try and say that God will not put on you more than you can take. This verse does not say that. It does say that we can overcome the temptation to sin through Jesus.
Scripture has many examples of the children of God in situations where they had more than they could stand. In all of these cases God helped them. Perhaps through the examples that follow God will show you that He will help you bear your burdens.
The God of Job Can Bear Your Burdens
The story of Job is one of the most familiar in the Bible. Few lives can match the trials he had to endure. Job was left with no other place to turn than God.
Satan thought that if the Lord removed His hand of providence from Job that he could get him to curse God. The devil knows that God’s power is more than he can overcome. The Lord agreed to these terms and many great calamities fell on Job.
First, Job got word from a servant that his livestock were gone. Then he heard that all his servants had been killed. Finally Job found out his sons and daughters were dead.
As if all this hardship wasn’t enough the Lord then allowed Satan to smote Job with boils all over his body. His wife told Job that he should curse God and die. The Bible says that through it all Job refused to charge the Lord with his troubles.
Through all of this trial Job remained faithful to God. In the end, God restored to Job more than he had to start with. I believe that the same God tries us today. At one point Job wished he had never been born. His grief was more than he could handle. God was there to bear his burden. He will do the same for you, so stay strong and have faith in Him.
Job 3:11 Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
You Are Not In The Battle Alone
Elijah was a great prophet. The Lord used him to show King Ahab how wrong Israel had been in worshiping false gods. God even helped Elijah destroy the prophets of Baal. This is the short version of all God did through Elijah but believe me when I say that Elijah was used to do amazing things with the help of God.
Ahab told Queen Jezebel all that Elijah had done. Jezebel had been a central figure in the promotion of the worship of idols. The news that the prophets were slain by Elijah infuriated her. She sent word to Elijah that she would have him killed for doing this.
Elijah went on the run. He went into the wilderness and found a place to rest under a juniper tree. It was there that we see that Elijah had more than he could take. The prophet prayed to God that he would take away his life.
God was not finished with Elijah. An angel came and fed Elijah. The Lord had sent Elijah what he needed to go on at his lowest point. Elijah traveled on some more and went to a cave. God found him there and asked him what he was doing. Elijah told Him that all of Israel had turned to idolatry and he was the only one left. God told Elijah to get moving and continue in His work. He also told him there was seven thousand left in Israel that had not bowed a knee to Baal.
Maybe you think you are walking alone in this Christian way. Things can start to look bleak if we focus on this world. I want to remind you that you are not in this by yourself. God gave us the church so we could help each other along the way. The journey is too great for you to go on alone.
1 Kings 19:7 And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat: because the journey is too great for thee.
Sin: The Greatest Burden We Cannot Bear
We are all sinners. The Bible is clear on that. Our own conscience shows us this truth. It is in our DNA, embedded there as a result of the original sin in the Garden of Eden.
Death is something we would rather not talk about. We like to think that it is somewhere down the road. The cold fact is that we do not know this. Today could be the day you or I leave this world.
I used to think that the 23rd Psalm was talking about a later time in my life when I would be in that ” valley of death”. Now I know that I have always been in that valley. You have too. The end is just a breath away.
Okay, I know. This all sounds pretty grim. It would be very bleak without one person. Jesus! He is the only way to overcome death and the grave. The only way to heaven is through the blood of the Lamb.
No other burden we have on Earth is greater than the burden of sin. It has pronounced death and hell on all mankind. Thank God that we have a load bearer for this plague. You have a great shepherd that can bear your burdens.
Psalm 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
I have not always put my trust in God. In my youth I was headstrong (and perhaps I still am today). The Lord has shown me, through sickness and death, that I must count on Him through it all. God is not my co-pilot, He is the captain.
Perhaps you have a heavy burden today. You don’t have to bear your burdens alone. I will be glad to help you with your load. The church is also here to lift you up. Ultimately God wants his people to trust in Him and his son, Jesus. Give your burdens to Him today.
Matthew 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.