I’ll admit it...I’m a worrier. I stress, I analyze, I get paranoid.
My husband tells me all the time to stop carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.
Although I might not physically carry things on my shoulders, and no one can actually see what I carry, they are there. And my load gets heavy...really heavy.
What do you carry?
There are times that I am carrying my personal burdens, my kids’, my husband’s, other family members’, my students, my friends’, and anything else I pick up along the way. I can worry about everyone and everything! And I am constantly thinking about it all. But even if my worries are legitimate, I don’t need to carry them.
1 Peter 5:7 says (AMP) “casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very well.”
God does not intend for us to carry all of the burdens that we carry. We don’t need to. Whatever it is, He’s got it. I notice that the Amplified says “once and for all.” It is so easy for me to pray and give it to God, only to pick it right back up again.
He wants to take those burdens from you ONCE AND FOR ALL. If I’m honest, this is hard for me. I think I feel a sense of control if I hold on to my worries. But carrying so much causes me a lot of stress.
Most of us are so good about letting our burdens weigh us down. But really, they aren’t ours to carry.
God doesn’t intend for the problems of this world to weigh us down.
Pray and give it to Him. But He has also given you people in your life that you can share it with.
He wants us to come alongside one another to make each other’s burdens a little lighter. Galatians 6:2 (ESV) says “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” We all need a sister in the faith that can come alongside us, pray for us, and help lighten our load.
Do you have someone like that? We all need a friend like that, but we need to be this kind of friend to someone else as well. I’m learning just how important this is.
So sit down, take it to Him, call a friend, and be free from the weight that you are under!
Lord, thank you for caring about me enough to carry my burdens. My worries often get heavy. Help me to find a friend that I can trust and be transparent with about my struggles. Help me find that friend that will pray with me and build me up. Help me to be this kind of friend for someone else as well. Amen
Journal prompt: What am I carrying that I need to give to God? Do I have the kind of friend described in Galatians 6:2? And am I capable of being that kind of friend to someone else?
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