Never More Than I Can Bear?
Mathew 11:28-30 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy my burden is light.They say God will never give more than one can bear but sometimes that feels like a lie. Life can be so...overwhelming and the burdens crushing. In the storms of life the mess can definitely feel bigger than God. He is diminished and dwarfed just a little more with each burden I choose to take on.Yes, choose because it does come down to a choice.So it got me to thinking.How can I live life where I am not so easily beset with burdens?How can I live where choosing to live burden free is easier than not?I decided that as a Christian, my best example to study would be, and should be, Jesus. In my search through the Bible the verse above stuck out to me. Of all the people to walk this earth Jesus carried the greatest burden. He was sent to live a perfect life AND to die so that all mankind has the opportunity to receive eternal life. So how did he remain so calm and collected? He may have been Jesus but when he entered this earth through the virgin Mary he became fully man and was tempted and had trials just like every human but he was able to be the one and only man who knew no sin. Now THAT was PRESSURE! If anyone had a valid excuse for being stressed and burdened it was Jesus.But he wasn't. Instead he encouraged people to follow his example by saying his yoke was easy and his burden was light.But how so?Then it dawned on me.He had tunnel vision. He was pin point focused because he was concerned with only one thing; The will of his Father.He could have chosen to take on many burdens but he didn't. He passed them off to God and just chose (there's that word again) to ONLY focus on what God wanted him to. Jesus was so assured that God had everything handled that he didn't question or worry about what wasn't given to him.It is so much easier to never feel like things are more than I can bear when I choose, like Jesus did every day, to only be concerned about the will of God instead of choosing to take on everything else.So now I have a battle plan.Instead of choosing to let burdens overwhelm me, I just want to preemptively choose to ONLY focus on the things that God wants me to and leave the rest to him.I feel lighter already. :)
