Psalm 55:22: Cast your burden on the Lord...He
shall sustain you.
Philippians 4:6: In everything...let your
requests be made known unto God.
1 Peter 5:7: Casting all your care upon Him, for
He cares for you.
Job 1:5: Job rose up early in the morning and
offered burnt offerings for all of them.
Unpacked Baggage
We cannot properly intercede for others until we have cleared away
the baggage of personal concerns, needs and cares. We must find a
resting place where we can lay down our burdens, in order to bear the
burdens of others in prayer. Hearts that are "overloaded" with care will
be distracted in prayer and made ineffective in their intercession. In
Luke 21:34, Jesus warned his disciples to beware of the danger of three
distracting pitfalls:
- Over-abundance (surfeiting, over-spending,
over-charging, too many possessions)
- Over-indulgence (drunkenness, lover of
pleasures, over-eating, over-playing)
- Overload (cares, burdens, worries, fears of
this life)
Take Your Burden to the Lord
The most deceptive and innocent-looking of these pitfalls is that
“feeling of being overloaded.” We cannot escape the cares of normal
living, but we can UNLOAD the OVERLOAD. Jesus concludes the issue in
verse 36 by saying, "Therefore watch and pray always..."
Leave it There!
The solution to overload is prayer. That means we must bring excess
burdens, cares, concerns, problems, worries, fears, anxieties and
troubles TO THE LORD and leave them there! We can – and should – raise
some issues to the Lord over and over (see Luke 18), for example, by
praying for the health or salvation of a family member. But we need to
entrust those cares to the Lord as we go about our day, and allow Him to
shoulder the burden of our worries. Too often we lift our concerns to
Him, and walk away just as burdened as before we prayed.
Cast, Roll, Dump it!
David said, "Cast thy burden on the Lord" (Psalm 55:22). The word
"cast" is the key here. It literally means... ROLL... DUMP... UNLOAD.
Picture yourself carrying a backpack of heavy equipment and sliding it
off your own shoulders and onto someone who is stronger, and better able
to carry the load. You cannot carry your own burdens plus the
burdens of others! Burdens are lifted from us as we roll them onto the
Lord.
