When the Burden is heavy

Lately I have felt that my burden and load have been heavy. I wake up in the morning with too much on my mind and heart and go to bed nearly the same way. As a person of prayer, I have found myself over and over again giving these burdens to God, yet as a normal human I haven't found myself letting go.

In Ecclesiastes Chapter 1 the writer is speaking of having to teach others. He says that God has placed heavy burden on man by giving him this task. As I read this passage I thought about my life. I have been called to teach. God does bless us with the joy of telling others about him. Sometimes this can seem like a burden, too much for any one person to handle. But as I continued to think about my burden, I realized just how much God can take burden away. God promises that if I hand it over to him and rely on him, I will be taken care of. Two of my favorite verses of scripture come from Proverbs 3. I like to read them from the Message. It says

"Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he's the one who will keep you on track."

You see, if we can just trust God, He will take care of everything. As humans we often try to figure out everything on our own. The scripture tells us not to do that. We are instructed to listen for God's voice in EVERYTHING we do because he is the one who will keep us on track.

Since I have been struggling with these many burdens and doing my best to give them to God, I have noticed that my prayer life is getting stronger. One of the places I pray is in the shower. When I was in the shower this morning a song came on that I have heard several times before, only this time it had new meaning for me. This song is by Sara Groves and it is called "When the Saints".

Some of the words are as follows:
"Lord I have a heavy burden of all I've seen and know
It's more than I can handle
But your word is burning like a fire shut up in my bones
and I cannot let it go."

Using the link above you can read all of the words, but Sara goes on to sing about saints like Paul and Silas who carried on in the prison yard.

This song touched me in a new way this morning and I shed a few tears. I spoke a small, short prayer giving God the burden...completely placing it in his hands. All I can do now is continue to pray, have faith, and rely on the scriptures.

So if you burden is heavy, remember God will take it...if you give it to him.