Heavy Burdens?

 

Tuesday — a day of fatigue. I can blame staying up too late last night but hoped a Blue Jay win would perk me up. Finally, I went to bed long before the tie-breaking home run by the Dodgers. 

This morning, God reminded me that weariness happens because of the energy it takes to stay connected to needy people. Our granddaughter made it to Canada, was not allowed to fly to our city and sent to a nearby hospital on the west coast. Today, she is released to fly and trying to get a ticket, last we knew. This five days of long-distance care has drained my emotional resources, was lifted on Sunday by the music and message, and two surprising and wonderful answers to prayer. But I am still tired. 

Relationships are complex and I long for the day when all brokenness, whether hearts or bones, gives way to perfection. I also look forward to an eternity of no more grudges or complaining, hard-heartedness or fragile-hearts, hurt feelings or bullying, broken communication, innuendo or bravado or anything that hides the beauty of Jesus, the One who calls the weary and heavy laden to come to Him for rest:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)

I note this says “souls” and not “bodies” and know that watching sports doesn’t give that physical rest either. Instead, this is rest for the weariness of trying to carry the things that burden me, rest that only Jesus can give — for He isn’t into giving me a load too heavy and that I have to carry myself.
These days of deep concern for our GD bring words like, “God bless you” yet we Christians tend to interpret that to mean comfort and no problems. The Lord’s definition of blessing is not always about the perks of living…

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. (Psalm 32:1–2)
Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. (Romans 4:7–8)

One writer says he is blessed: “whether I live in a penthouse or an outhouse, drive a BMW or pedal a bicycle, feast on caviar or munch on a crust of bread, have a retirement fund or live from paycheck to paycheck, wear updated fashion or hand-me-downs…” There is no greater state of blessedness than simply to be in Christ, and to know that He is looking out for me. 

That said, I’m not to use what I have been blessed with for my own glory. It is not wrong to be on the comfortable side of things, but to fix my trust and reliance on them is to rob God of His due. He is my Creator, Lord of all, supreme over all things, even the discomforts and trials of life. To make personal comfort my sole goal is idolatry. Complaining is evidence of that sinful goal, also evidence that I think my ideas and desires are more worthy than His. Shame on me. He sends me to bed when I’m tired, but I still try to run my own life. This can show up in prayer by my impatience, and my telling Him what to do rather than surrendering to His will. If I limit Him that way, I would miss all His awesome surprises.

PRAY: I notice that fatigue can easily send me away from You and also into self-pity, which is another way of mocking Your goodness, as if You do not care. The gospel is always the answer to this and other foolishness. You died for me that I might live. Whatever else happens is part of Your good plan to transform me into Your image. All my complaining only slows the process and robs You of glory. So I come to You for rest from my anxieties and ask clarification concerning “light burdens” because You do ask me to be yoked with You.

These troubling times. . . .

 

Many folks in North America are in a turmoil over tariffs, new laws, and the way governments are threatening each other. However, Christians need not get in a stew. Sooner or later, either in mercy or in wrath, God will make all men see and confess that “The most High rules.” Nothing happens apart from His will, even the tough stuff.

In the days of Daniel, the king Nebuchadnezzar thought he was invincible and yet God had another plan. This man was “driven from among men, and his dwelling was with the beasts of the field. He was made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time passed over him, until he knew that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” (Daniel 4:17-32) After this time of insanity, this proud king declared:

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:34–35)

In many cases, national leaders have little knowledge of God. Even these days, I’ve heard it said that while many Christians have biblical understanding that God is ruling, is totally sovereign, yet in practice they live like atheists. This does not always mean they are not really Christians, but that the full realization of this truth has not yet grabbed hold. The flesh still has not realized it is dead (separated from God) or the reality of fleshy action has not been recognized. If that is happening, some Christians run their own lives as if God is there only to forgive sin and take them to heaven.

This can be the result of inadequate teaching, or just a proud heart that does not see their need to diligently study the Word of God. Whatever the reason, God teaches us through trials. When trouble comes, the goal is to realize He can be trusted within the trial. For Nebuchadnezzar, God removed it. For some, the difficulty stays.

Either way, eventually all of us are terminal. What goes unlearned here will not benefit this life or give us the peace of knowing God is in charge. Far better is that “abundant life” Jesus promised to His sheep. We need to be able to say this about those who think they are in charge of things:  

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. (Isaiah 40:21–25)

He also says this, and these words give me a calm heart:

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” (Psalm 2:1–6)

PRAY: Father, I am so glad that You are on the throne and that the rulers of this world are not greater, stronger, or in charge over You. I can pray and even protest their ideas if You want me to do that, or I can rest in Your care and trust You, learning what You want me to learn from all trials. Nothing happens to the lives of Your people that escapes Your power to use it for our good — which is to transform us into the image of Your Son Jesus.

When in Trouble . . .

 

 

There are certain ‘laws of nature’ such as ‘what goes up must come down’ referring to gravity. There are certain spiritual laws too, such as ‘The soul that sins must die’ but also ‘There is no condemnation to those in Christ.’

I selected TROUBLE as today’s word and notice right away that it has the same opposites as those two spiritual laws. On the one hand, God brings trouble on those who disobey Him and on the other hand, He calls those who are in trouble to rely on Him.

It seems universal to blame God for trouble, often by those refusing to be responsible for whatever we might have done to bring it on ourselves. God told His people that if they disobeyed them, trouble would befall them (a spiritual law). He knew they might blame Him just as He said in Deuteronomy 31:17:

Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’

Yet there are times when human sin is the obvious cause. A man named Aachan took spoil in battle that was forbidden and Joshua said to him, “’Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today.’ And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones.” The problem was not God and Aachan had been warned.

2 Chronicles tells of the people being “broken in pieces. Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress.”  But the Lord told their king Asa to “take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded” and as soon as he heard these words, “he took courage and put away the detestable idols . . . and he repaired the altar of the Lord.” This was wise. When disobedience brings trouble, obedience can change things.

However, just like today, blame-shifting also happened. In 1 Kings 18:17–18, when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” Elijah answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.” Again, breaking the laws of God results in trouble, just as jumping off a cliff results in gravity taking over.

Habakkuk was sensible when God informed him that He would use His enemies to correct the sin of His people. This prophet said, “I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.’ He knew that God also would deal with the sin of those enemies, but it would not happen quickly.

The other side of the ‘trouble coin’ is that God who created this law of cause and effect also offers Himself as the panacea. In Psalm 50:15, He says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

And other psalmists say: “The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble” and “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles” and “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” and “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.”

In the NT, the shift is from external trouble to the reaction God’s people have to it. Jesus said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Jesus makes it possible to not be troubled by trouble!

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. 1 Peter 3:14–17 repeats that idea: “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”

His words point to Jesus Christ who models the attitude God wants for me when trouble comes. Fear is not from Him. Self-effort and retaliation do not work. Only the peace of God and willingness to let Him govern the troubles of life can make any difference to the way this spiritual law works and to ensure that trouble will not trouble me.