Psalm 38:4
My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.
Last week my family and I went for a long 4WD landing us in a secluded beach area where boat and sea rubbish are washed ashore.
Exploring the rocks we stumbled across one giant pile of dreadlocked ropes.
What do you do when you stumble across a pile of dreadlocked ropes? You get a revelation and decide to take dreaded ropes to church to share.
As I picked up a piece of rope and started dragging it upon the rocky surface I looked upon the mess and thought "this is heavy, like a burden".
As I picked up the burden to place it into the back of our car I thought "yep, here I am holding a burden. A mighty. heavy. burden"
As I finished putting the last of the tangled burden into the car, stepped back and brushed the sand off my hands & clothing I thought "Aahhh, that's much lighter" and shut the door.
So what is a burden?
A Burden defined is: something that is carried, something that is emotionally difficult to bear, a source of great worry, a stress, a weight, being weighed down, oppressed, loaded or overloaded.
Throughout the week as I pondered these things and more the revelation or messages came clearer and stronger.
As you look at these ropes it becomes clear that untangling this mess would take a whole lot of patience and hard work. We managed to pull one thick piece of rope off before giving up. I guess somethings are more important than untangling the messes in our lives.
As you look at these ropes it is clear that they are well weathered and wrapped and rolled into a decievable bundle.
You may not be able to tell by looking at these ropes but together they are really heavy and holding onto them day after day after day would eventually wear you down. Especially since there's no purpose in carrying and holding a pile of washed up old ropes in your daily living.
But I guess for me, the thing that grabs me the most, is how you can not lift these ropes up to Praise Jesus. If you had enough strength to lift it up you couldn't hold it high enough for long enough to focus on Jesus.
You NEED TO LET IT GO FROM YOUR HANDS SO YOU CAN LIFT YOUR HANDS TO HIM!!!!!
Our burdens can be:
Past, childhood, parents, sins, relationships, guilt, shame, fears, thoughts, lies, enemy, perceptions, falsehoods, relationships, finances, unforgiveness, even burdens that others place upon us, our weaknesses, and more. So. Much. More. There are literally a bounty of burdens each unique to us.
What burdens you right now????
Throughout the week I thought about the impact that burdens create upon our lives.
While we are holding onto our burdens:
Intimacy between spouses are hindered...
Intimacy between children are hindered...
Relationships with family, friends, acquaintances are hindered...
Our ministries are hindered...
Which means our churches, community and nations are hindered...
Our lives suffer from the heaviness of our burdens.
BUT...
There is some good news on burdens:
Galatians 6:2 "Carry each others burdens". It makes our burdens lighter.
Psalm 68:19 "Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour, who daily bears our burdens."
Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
Galatians 5:1 "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
From here I would like to invite you to follow me outside, cast you cares before The Cross and maybe some people can pray for you if you are needing a bit of something more tonight.
[How ever The Good Lord Leads!!]
ETA: The thing went well. I did well. The cross now covers a whole church congregations burdens.
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