What burdens are you carrying today?

An ill child? Financial need? Deteriorating health? Diminishing capacity? Loneliness? Indecision? Losing someone you love? Failed mentors? Injustice? Growth of wickedness?

Isaiah warns that trusting in anything other than God will only increase those burdens making them even more burdensome.

Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary. They stoop and bow down together; unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity.

Isaiah 46:1–2 NIV

Instead God is our burden-bearer.

Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, all the remnant of the people of Israel, you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

Isaiah 46:3–4 NIV

This theme is carried throughout God’s message to us, culminating in Jesus who bore our ultimate burden of sin.

• He protects his flock like a shepherd; he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in the fold of his garment. (Is 40:11)
  He gently leads those that are nursing.Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death. (Ps 68:19-20)
• I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket. In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. (Ps 81:6-7)
• Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains. (Is 53:4 CSB)
• Jesus said: If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest. Take the yoke I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest. This yoke is easy to bear, and this burden is light. (Mat 11:28–30 CEV)
• Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Pet 5:6–7)
• It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Gal 5:1)
• This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. (1 John 5:2–4)

God is a Burden-Bearing God—He is willing to carry the total sum of our burdens, those that we have because of our circumstances and those that we bear because of our own mistakes. It is his nature to carry your burdens, so you can go freely to him with any struggle you have. This shows dependence and reliance on him (which was not what the Israelites reflected in Isaiah).

Amy Cedrone

What burdens are you carrying today? Let God carry them.

PRAYER

Lord, I can cast my cares on you. Please carry me.

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All scripture is from the New International Version unless otherwise noted with emphasis added.