Burden

I was pedaling away today thinking of what to share with you...and one word came to mind.

Burden.

Burden is an emotion or a feeling that anyone can experience during their life.

Sometimes it can be a for a season, while there are others who may have felt it for longer than they can remember.

You see, the simplistic way that we look at burden I think sometimes, is that it is to be avoided at all costs.

Burden is Bad it seems.

That is because most of our experiences of it may have been negative.

People say that Jesus wants to lift our burdens from us.

I believe that is true.

But there is balance to this whole thing that I think we need to be aware of.

Most people think of or quote the following passage…

Matthew 11:28-29 niv

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

It is true. Jesus wants to relieve us of our burdens.

Especially things that have been or are damaging us.

Wrong thinking, emotional scares, tainted memories, incorrect motives...and more all come under this area.

But listen to what he carries on to say…

Matthew 11:30 niv

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

There is a burden you are supposed to carry.

He has already hinted at it with talk of a yoke many times.

The key here is to know what that burden is and how to handle it.

I don’t have space in this simple thought to go into it in depth. But here are some ideas to consider.

Ideas for you to pray through and see if they relate to you or are a prompting specifically for you.

Jesus Burdens are something like this:

Burden to Love God

Burden to Love Everyone Else

Burden to make Good Choices

Burden to serve the Kingdom

Burden to live out the Call and Dream God has for each of us personally

Burden to Share our burden with others so we can do it together

That is just a broad and basic list.

Something for you to think about.

Please take some time today to review where you are at.

Review whether you have got this burden thing right.

Lay down what is not good.

Pick up what is God honouring.

And let us keep pressing into Jesus!

Something to think about…