The Burden Bearer

Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

Psalm 55:22

Have you ever had days when you felt like nothing more than a beast of burden plodding under the weight of your load? We were not designed to be burden bearers. When we try to carry our burdens on our own, we break down under them. Here’s the good news: Jesus is the burden bearer. David wrote, “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens” (Psalm 68:19, NIV).

Are you loaded down with anxiety, guilt, others’ expectations, unforgiveness, bitterness, worry, or feelings of inadequacy—the burdens life piles on? Listen to this invitation: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Jesus offers rest. He offers his strength for your weakness, his fullness for your emptiness, his power for your inadequacy. He offers you himself and longs to take the weight from your shoulders. You can “give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7).

He loves you, and none of his plans are for your harm. He is wise and can take into account the whole picture, from beginning to end. He has the power to do what you cannot. He is able to provide for your every need, and he delights in doing so. He is able to do more than you can think to ask, and he is always working behind the scenes to bring about a redemptive conclusion. Even when things look bleak and seem to be taking their own courses, God is in control and is working everything out according to his perfect plan.

What is weighing you down? In this moment, hand that burden over to Jesus, the burden bearer. As you do, let him remind you of the trustworthiness of his love for you, and experience the lifting of the burden, the transfer of the load from your shoulders to his.

Thank you, Jesus, for bearing my burdens. Teach me how to live so close to you that I never try to carry my burdens on my own.

He that takes his cares on himself loads himself in vain with an uneasy burden. I will cast my cares on God; he has bidden me; they cannot burden him.

Joseph Hall(1574–1656), English bishop and satirist