By Karen Moore
karenmooreauthor.com
The Scottish theologian John Baillie wanted to help people recognize that a personal relationship with God was possible.
His book “A Diary of Private Prayer” is a classic 31-day devotional that gives readers a greater understanding of what that means.
Looking at the issue of burdens we carry, Baillie wrote: “Give me a stout heart to bear my own burdens. Give me a willing heart to bear the burdens of others. Give me a believing heart to cast all burdens upon Thee, O Lord.”
Since burdens are generally the stuff that life is made of, it is helpful to all of us to learn how to best manage them.
Most of us are prone to keeping our burdens private, which means we often carry a heavy load.
We carry those burdens for ourselves and for people we love and even for the world as it is.
We carry them because we don’t really know how to set them down or where to put them that can make any difference at all.
More we can do
If we take a page out of Baillie’s notebook, we might find that there’s more we can do than simply shrug our shoulders and hope to be able to bear the weight of those things that concern us.
The truth is God knows you can’t carry those burdens all on your own, and He never intended that you should.
Here’s where that personal relationship with Him comes in.
If we believe that He not only will, but truly wants to, share in our burdens, then we immediately have a place to take them.
We are not left alone to simply stress over those issues that are too big for us to handle. We don’t have to imagine that somehow we will miraculously come up with all the right answers, whether for ourselves or others.
In fact, we can lay those burdens down at the feet of the One who offers to walk with us and carry the heaviest part of our load.
So how do we do that?
There’s a secret to our success. We have to remember this.
Once you cast your burdens on the Lord, place them squarely in His hands, then leave them there. You don’t get to take them back the next day and start to worry all over again.
If you struggle with that idea, think of all those times that you have personally helped someone else. You helped them because you cared for them. You wanted better things for them. You knew you could help them move on and feel better about life.
If you can remember how good you felt about helping them, then remember that God feels that way about you. He wants to help you.
Just get out of the way and let Him act. Your heart knows that He will keep His promises and bear your burdens joyfully. May God give you a great big believing heart today.
How to prepare for upcoming problems
Recently, I fell head-first down seven steps at my home and survived with a skinned knee. Perhaps what I learned during my fall will relate to problems that lay ahead in your life.
- ADMIT.
Realize you’ve messed up. Turn to God and pray for help.
- ASSESS.
Protect yourself. In this case, it meant turning to protect my left knee that was recovering from surgery but protected in a brace.
- AIM.
Look at your trajectory. The stairs were carpeted. At the bottom was a carpeted landing. Crutches prevented me from reaching the railing on the left side.
- ALLAY.
Discard anything unhelpful. I tossed my crutches aside so I wouldn’t land on them, but they traveled beside me.
- ARM.
Brace for impact. Eyes open, head up, hands out, arms not stiff-armed. Defend yourself.
- ACQUIRE.
Take the hit, but roll with it. I got my right knee down on a step before my hands hit the landing. Keep your head from touching anything.
- ASSESS.
Survey the damage. Lay there. Don’t get up. Let your wife come running, shouting your name all the way. You’re alive and loved. Nothing broken. Knee just has rug burn. Humbly thank the Lord.
Mark Snowden, DOM/AMS
Cincinnati Area Baptist Assoc.
Slap those worries away
By David L. Chancey
McDonough Road Baptist Church, Fayetteville, Ga.
Let’s confess. We worry. We fret. We sometimes sweat the small stuff.
Concern is appropriate when it produces action.
Worrying, on the other hand, is unproductive. Worry distorts our perspective, often giving a small thing a big shadow.
God’s strategy to battle worry begins with prayer.
Philippians 4:6 reads, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”
Let God handle it
As soon as a worry pops into our minds, take it to God in prayer and let Him handle it. That’s easier said than done … and we like to help God with our worries, like He’s not powerful and wise enough to manage on His own.
When we worry, we’re telling God we don’t believe He can handle our problems.
Worry and trust cannot live in the same heart. When we worry, we aren’t trusting. When we trust, we eliminate worry.
Too often, we want to control people’s behavior, actions, decisions, circumstances and outcomes. We can’t, but God can. Turn control over to Him. Then learn to live one day at a time.
Make it a good one
Psalm 90:12 refers to numbering our days, not our months and years. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow isn’t here yet. Today is the day we have, so let’s make it a good one.
Intentionally eliminate worrisome thoughts from your mind.
Finally, remember God cares for you. He really does. Recognize His care as you cast your worries on Him (1 Pet. 5:7).
So this happened recently: my fairly new computer went black when I unplugged it. That’s strange. It has a great battery and usually I can charge it, then walk around the house and sit in different spots to use it all day.
But not this particular morning. I was talking to Jesus about something else — my flesh and repentance — and the verse that came to mind was John 15:5.
John 15:5 in The Passion Translation reads, “I am the sprouting vine and you’re my branches. As you live in union with me, as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you — but when you live separated for me, you are powerless.”
As soon as I saw the word “powerless” I thought of my computer. Of course, it will not work unless it’s plugged in. If it is separated from the power source, it is powerless.
To punctuate the message from the Holy Spirit, I got a phone call from a friend that same day. My friend was sending me some files for new artwork, and the name of his company and his email address is — wait for it — John155.
Yep, God is always speaking. May I have ears to hear. Stay plugged in!
Jean Costner Thomason
Franklin, Tennessee
misspattycake.com
“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.’ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him.”
Lamentations 3:19–25
The world is so sick and so tired, yet Jesus is so willing to heal.
@brocraigc (Craig Carlisle)
X (formerly Twitter)
We don’t have to be fearful about what this new week holds. God is already standing in every one of our tomorrows. Standing there with His love. Waiting on us with His wisdom. Going before us with His hope and His provision.
@LysaTerKeurst
X (formerly Twitter)
In Texas, the saying goes, “If you don’t like the weather in Texas, just stick around a few minutes and it’ll change.” When my wife, Rondie, and I lived in Texas, it was not uncommon for the temperature to drop as much as 50 degrees in one day.
What is said about the weather in Texas can be said about life in general. Life is always changing on us.
Everything can be going great in our lives, and then the rug can get pulled out from beneath us. Change can happen fast.
The problem is that we live in a beautiful world but one that is also very broken. Since the fall of man, the world is not as it should be.
Good things don’t always come to good people.
In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon explored the secrets to life “under the sun.” No matter where he began, his search kept leading him back to God. As he pondered the many different seasons of life, he concluded that God makes all things beautiful in its time.
Pastor Bill Wilks
Trussville, Alabama
