Cast Thy Burden

Psalm 55:22

KJV

“Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”

The anxieties on the heart of a man have the complete ability to blockade him from the presence of God. I know this first-hand. What does it come from? Lack of trust in God surely, along with a combination of other things. Pride perhaps in trying to figure out a situation, only to find their heart burdened by the weight of what they weren't meant to bear. General slothfulness also will lead to an anxious heart. Things will get messy and then one can feel the pressure to then fix what he broke. I can identify with any number of the causes of a burdened heart. There's nothing that is worse than carrying that which I'm not built to carry. Imagine seeing a man on a bicycle trying yo trailer a gasoline tanker across the country. You’d think they're crazy and would try to help them recognize that a bicycle isn't the right vehicle for the job, but they would stubbornly not listen to you and insist that it's the only way to be done. Yet, don't we do the same thing? We try to carry a gas tanker on our own feeble strength. We carry that which we are not built to carry.

Each and every day I fail to cast all my burdens upon the Lord. My flesh and Satan want nothing more than to keep me loaded down, so they do all they can to keep me distracted and ignorant of what's on my back. I pick things back up so often which I had given into the hands of God. I don't fully trust Him in everything, even though He has shown Himself to be a faithful caretaker of my daily burdens. Yet, praise God for His abounding grace in my times of need and in the depths of sin. Every time I turn again to face God and present Him my burdens, He takes them and my soul is at peace knowing I'm in the care of the Good Shepherd.

The greatest burden of all however is not the daily difficulties and trivial trials. It is, or rather was, sin. Not only the sins I commit, but my sin nature as a descendant of Adam and Eve. It has been crucified with Christ and left in the grave. I still sin, but sin no longer has power to enslave me, since the power of the Blood of Christ has crushed the 0

power of sin and death. I no longer have to fight guilt, shame and condemnation upon my conscience without relief. The cleansing power of the Blood relieves that burden. The greatness of the Cross lifts it off my shoulders as it echoes the words of Jesus “it is finished”. It is finished indeed. Jesus asked us to cast our burdens and anxieties upon Him, for He cares for us. That He does, when we come to Him in faith. He removes from us all our unrighteousness, lifts off the yoke of bondage and slavery, and cleans our consciences from dead works to serve the Living God. He calls us, no, declares us free. Who the Son sets free is free indeed! The sweetness of that freedom cannot compare to any pleasure the world of sin has to offer. To be freed from the wretched master Sin, and brought under the loving care of Jesus is like nothing else. Certainly difficulties come, but we are not meant to bear them either! We are called to give them to God, and to endure them through His Holy Spirit. The suffering produces endurance, the endurance produces character, and the character produces hope which does not disappoint. I yearn to live the life God calls me to and has for me, a life of freedom. The only burden I must bear is light and easy, and that is the burden of His Holy Spirit, which I will gladly bear with all my heart, soul, strength and mind.

God Is Not Man

Numbers 23:19

ESV

“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”

God is not human, and for that I am thankful. He may have come in the likeness of man through His Son Jesus, but He will never succumb or be moved by the grievances humankind has. His promises will never be redacted. Our hearts are deceitfully wicked above all else, and each day we change our minds dozens of times. All around the world, commitments are broken through divorce, promises broken through selfish desires, and lies and deceit breathed out. We are a fickle creation due to our lust for things other than God, thinking the world has something better to offer than the One who made it! As the Spirit has revealed to me over the last couple days, Satan has been doing all he can to distract me from the promises of God. To forget His words, both those written in His Word and personally spoken. By this Satan has kept me from being as effective for the kingdom of God as I could be. When I am blinded from the promises of God, I lose my strong footing. I lose any hope and expectation I have and get focused solely on the minute distractions I encounter each day, forgetting the greater purpose I have.

Has God said, and will He not do it?

Has God spoken, and will He not fulfill it?

The answer is a firm and planted yes. He will do it, and He will fulfill it. The God who commanded that “Thou shalt not lie” cannot then turn around and lie. He cannot declare false things for it is not in His nature to do so. All throughout His Word, there are testimonies of His faithfulness to fulfill promises. What comes first to my mind is the many battles and enemies David faced. Without fail, when God said He would deliver an enemy into David's hands,David would have victory over His enemies. When God spoke through the prophets concerning the Messiah, He followed through with the coming of the Messiah. These are only a couple of examples, but in both a similar strand can be found of how human nature handles Gods promises. We hate to wait. We lose sight of the intimate and close words which God has spoken to us in the quiet times. We forget that He is a God who never forgets, who never disappoints, and who never fails to do that which He says He will.

Through the last couple of weeks, I've been fighting a losing battle of confusion. Satan has been without fail battering me with distractions, doing anything and everything to keep me from remembering Gods promises towards me. Instead of having His promises on the forefront of my mind, I've had my problems. I exchanged the promise for the problem, rather than showing the problem the power of promise. It's been so easy to allow the flesh to overcome the Spirit and lock down my mind and heart into a place of discouragement and confusion. But, amidst that chaos, as I endured the waiting, God brought a reminder at the least expected time, yet also the perfect time. And that is the reminder that what has been promised will come to pass, no matter what the situation may look like right now. My heart may be a thousand miles away from its destination now, but I have a guarantee through the prayers of Jesus in Gethsemane, that just as the Father and Him are one, so shall the Father and I be one. I have yet to attain the promises which are to come, but I press on in hope and expectation, knowing that what God has spoken will become my reality.

I Have Returned

1 Peter 2:25

NKJV

“For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

God has been bringing the book of 1 Peter alive to me over the past week, and in combination with reading ‘A Shepherd Looks At Psalm 23’, it's no coincidence that God has brought this verse to my attention. As I reflect upon this verse, I'm reminded of the ways I used to live, of how I was like a sheep going astray. Bad habits, bad motives, sinful bondage, evil thoughts and crude words, and pursuing my own life rather than the one God created for me. I was textbook a sheep going astray.

Now, I can look back and praise God for His grace and constant, patient, insistent pursuit of me. Had it not been for Him, I would not be in IGNITE right now, and instead be going to college and hating my life that I chose. God knew what was best for me, and I'm grateful that He brought me to a breaking point to come to His calling. Where the Sheperd of my soul is, is just where I need to be, and He is here. Even now, I go astray each day, falling to sin and turning away from the only one who truly desires the best for me. My old self-life still springs up daily, and some bad habits still remain. It's so easy to fall back into old patterns and be stuck in the fleshly ways. Something which seems so simple, yet is so difficult, is changing the way I start my day. For the longest time, getting right out of bed early to have devotions and exercise has been a desire on my heart. Some days it's easy and it happens, yet more often than not, the flesh wars against the Spirit right as my eyes open and I will lie in bed much longer than I should, and sleep in much longer. I lose precious time which can determine the way my whole day goes. In Proverbs, God speaks a lot about this, and it comes down to purely being a sluggard. To being lazy. While this is a constant battle, I can trust and rest that even on the bad mornings, I can return to the Shepherd and Overseer of my soul from the ways I've gone astray. I know and trust that God will do the work needed in me so I can be victorious, not only in this aspect of life, but in all areas of struggle and constant defeat. He knows me better than I do, and knows just what I need to overcome the enemy. God will shift my priorities in my heart so drastically that it will be inevitable to progress in my faith and life. Progress is relative to priorities and once those are aligned with God's word and will, I will live a victorious life. All along the way, through bad days and good ones, God will continue to shape and mold me into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. It's simply a matter of time and surrender.

The Pure In Heart

Matthew 5:8

NKJV

“Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.”

I am a human. I have a human heart, which is deceitfully wicked above all things. Nothing good can come from me. How then, can I have a pure heart? Through the purification process that all believers go through during their lives. The fiery trials. The suffering. God turns up the heat to cause the impurities in my heart to rise, like dross that rises out of silver, and then He scrapes it off the top, to leave pure silver.

As I reflect upon this in light of a sermon I had listened to which involved it, the Holy Spirit has revealed that part of God's purpose for my participation in IGNITE is for the purifying of my heart. I have been in Uganda for a month now, and just over four months in IGNITE. God has turned up the heat since I've left the United States. He is causing the dross to rise from within my heart. The garbage is being brought to the surface, and He is testing my faith. The battle however is not in the tests. The battle is living life after the tests. It's maintaining a life that reflects what I've learned. It is so easy to allow the dross to come back into the heart. The garbage can enter with one sin, and will pile up the longer I leave it there. It will block my view of God, and all I will sense is the trash around me and in me. I must learn to live a clean hearted lifestyle, constantly being purified by the Purifier. When I'm living that godly life, I will then see God.

What does it mean to see God? Will it be with my own eyes, beholding Him in human form? Unlikely. Rather, it is seeing God in everything. Once the garbage is removed, the veil torn, the blindness cured, the sinful heart purified, I will see God in all His glory. The most ordinary situations will become extraordinary because I see the hand of God working in it. A broken relationship will be mended and God will be glorified for His part in it. My focus will be fixed upon serving His purpose in my life. I will see the bigger picture of life, and realize that I am part of something much larger than myself. I will see Jesus as the justifier, redeemer, savior. I will see Him as everything, for He is everything. I will see that all things consist in Him. Apart from Him nothing was made, and my heart will see that clearly, for it has been purified. Surrendering to Him will become the natural response, and revival will be a constant reality in me as my heart burns for my God.

The only catch is it takes time, pain, perseverance, and a greater view of the purpose of the fire. Only then can I endure the fire God had placed me in, and come out the other side purified, to see God as He has revealed Himself to be. My God.

In Him We Have Peace

John 16:33

ESV

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."

God has been hitting me with the hard fact that life will be full of troubles. There is no escaping them. The only relief I can find is in Jesus, but even then I must face the trial and see it through, no matter how difficult.

And why even worry? Greater is He! Not only that, greater is He that is in me! While it's not a harsh command, it's not a suggestion either; take heart! The presence of Jesus on a constant basis is all that is needed to assure the anxious soul of a remedy to the sickness that has befallen it. With Him as the centerpiece of my mind and holding the throne of my heart, nothing that comes against me will conquer me. Gods word declares that we are more than conquerors through Him. From there it remains my choice to believe that and live like it or not. Already while here I’ve experienced Gods conquering love fighting for me in situations that the carnal man would crumble in. We had been picked upon and toyed around with by some guards and an officer as we went to the capital of Uganda for traffic violations which were not committed. We were at dead ends with both situations, one happening right after the other, gor they both wanted ridiculous amounts of money for fines. But, we found that as we gave the situation to God, He took over completely. Our hearts were at rest and peace, and we walked away from both paying mere pennies to be on our way. In only a short few weeks God has displayed to me so much of His goodness to recall and lean upon for the rest of my life in whatever comes my way. God has not only given testimony but given wisdom through the trials as well.

The troubles we fight are never in vain, as long as they are fought with the right weapons. For the Christian, they must be heavenly weapons. To use anything else would be madness and a surety for failure. More so, it would just be a shame to not take advantage of the One who came so we could use Him for our good, Jesus! As He said here in John 16:33, He is here for our peace. He is here to fight for us. May we be Christians who constantly give our battles to the Lord, who call upon the Shepherd to beat away the wolves and dogs who come against His sheep, who rest in perfect peace knowing that everything will be taken care of. We need only be still and wait for Him.