Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Casting Our Burdens


Cast our burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22).

Hey Gang:  Of the 863 Morning Messages that I have sent in the past five years, I believe I can count on my fingers, may have to take off a shoe or two, but most of the messages have included something about me.  If you have been a faithful reader, you know a great deal about me.  This morning I have been struggling with a nagging problem that I have fought with for more than year and have reminded God of the “Ask and you will receive” verses in the Bible.

I did not receive a God-O-Gram or response to Jeremiah 31:3, where we are told “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know”.    But I do believe I received my answer.  I had the distinct feeling that He was telling me ‘I pray seeking, but not with a faith that moves even a tiny mole hill’.

It reminded me of the story of the little girl who was walking hand in hand with her daddy and ask him the question, “Do you believe that the weather forecaster was right and that it is going to rain?”  His response was, “Yes”. And her response, “Then where is your raincoat and umbrella?”  I wonder if, in the drought areas of our country, everyone wore raincoats and carried ‘bumber shoots’- umbrella’s to you city folks-  would God send the rains? 

We say prayer is a wonderful thing.  After a quick examination, I plead guilty to the Lord and ask His forgiveness, for I believed in the first words of the above Scripture- “Cast your burdens upon he Lord” but in action my faith has often waivered.

Now, just suppose you are intensely burdened about some need.  There is no burden so unworthy of our own concentration that we should not take it to the Lord.  But, when we pray, do we actually commit the burden to the Lord? or do we simply inform Him about it?  There is a difference.

Prayer is not only telling the Lord about our problem, it is also believing that He will do something about it. What must the Lord think when we bring our burden to His throne of grace, as if we were casting all our care upon Him, only to go on carrying the very same heaviness?   And when the burden continues, cast it on the Lord again and again.

It is only when we commit our burden to God, when we plead His grace to help, and ask Him to take control that we can have faith that He will take care of it.  The more we trust Him, the lighter our load will be and the quicker our answer will come.  Always the answer we seek? Not necessarily so! 

God wants to bear our burdens.  The question is, do we truly want to commit them to Him?  If so, then let’s say with the psalmist, “When my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (Psalm 61:2).  Therefore we can, “Cast our burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain (us).”  And we can claim the promise: “…all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matt. 21:22).  This is real casting of our burdens upon the Lord. 


So good buddies do not wait until you are over 82 to do as the Psalmist suggest, cast all your burdens on the Lord today, no matter how small or how big.  And then get about what God lays out for your assignment for the day.   It is giving to God a bad situation and sitting back and waiting for Him to turn it for His good and, if it for His good, it most certainly will be for our good also. 

Blessings, 

Gramps

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