I sat next to my living room window drinking a cup of peppermint tea. Then, I opened my Bible to the passage I planned to read for the day. After reading, I closed my eyes to pray. But, somehow I couldn’t seem to focus. My mind wandered to work deadlines quickly approaching, overdue bills and credit card debts owed, unfinished laundry, and the dreaded question of what I’d make for dinner that night.
This wasn’t the first time I struggled to focus as I sat down to pray. When I was in school, I was concerned about assignments, projects, and grades.
A few years from now, my worries may be completely different.
I don’t think that I’m alone in this: regardless of the season of life we’re in, there are many things we worry about each day. On their own, they may not feel too heavy but piled upon one another, they feel burdensome.
Carrying burdens can lead to feelings of overwhelm and anxiety, stress, and perhaps, even depression or fear. They can weigh heavily on our nervous system, making it hard to function in the day to day.
Personally, I don’t like carrying burdens so I often make plans and try to figure out how to fix things. But, when responsibilities come at me from many different directions, my methods feel ineffective. The more ineffective my methods become, the more I rely on myself to figure things out. It’s an endless cycle.
One day as my thoughts were spiraling, a prayer that I often saw on notebooks or postcards came to mind. It says:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.1
Many of us carry a lot of burdens. But not every burden is ours to bear. While there are some things that we certainly can change, other things are completely out of our hands. God graciously gives us wisdom to know the difference between the two.
Casting our burdens on the Lord
In fact, writing to Christians who were exiled from their homes and scattered around Asia Minor because of persecution, the apostle Peter says,
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7)
His encouragement comes from Psalm 55. Except, in the Psalm, David’s words are:
“Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.” (Psalm 55:22)
Perhaps as Peter’s letter was read, his audience also recalled Psalm 55. Like David, they may have felt overwhelmed by their thoughts and distraught because of their enemies (Psalm 55:2- 3). Or, maybe they dealt with feelings of anguish and fear. David wanted to flee his situation and they were fleeing persecution.
The words Peter did not write may have encouraged them just as much as the words he did write.
He will sustain you.
He will never let the righteous be moved.
Despite the burdens they carried, they were sustained by the Lord and they would not be moved.
Our burdens may be a little different. Yet, the encouragement is timeless and applicable to our situation too. He sustains us; we will not be moved.
We do not have to bear the heaviness of our burdens
Casting our burdens on the Lord will not necessarily change our present situation. But, it can make it easier to endure. We give our burdens to the Lord so that we do not have to bear the heaviness of them all.
When my mind was wandering that day, the Lord gently reminded me that I don’t have to neatly package my worries away or figure them out before coming into his presence. I could lay them down at his feet.
Instead of ruminating on how I could solve the things that were worrying me, I could name each of them before the Lord in prayer.
We’re allowed to bring him our frustrations, pains, and worries. For example, if you’re frustrated about the way things are going at work, you can tell the Lord about it and ask him to give you his peace. If you’re worried about finances, you can ask him to provide. If you’re concerned about your spouse, children, or loved ones, you can ask the Lord to guide them.
God may not always answer our prayers about our worries the way we want. But, I find that simply praying about them and presenting them to the Lord changes so much and brings much-needed peace.
The temptation to pick our burdens back up again
After giving my burdens to the Lord, I find I’m often tempted to pick them back up again and try to figure things out on my own. The weight grows heavy again and the cycle repeats.
If you relate, these three suggestions may be helpful. When we feel like picking our burdens back up, we can:
Lay them down daily
The process of casting our burdens on the Lord is a daily one. Even before worries begin to consume our minds and heavy burdens begin to weigh us down, we can make a practice of taking everything to the Lord.
Just as preventative medicine can help us avoid physical ailments, laying our burdens down daily can prevent them from becoming too heavy.
Look to the Lord, the one who takes care of us
We may also need to change our perspective. Instead of seeing our burdens as our responsibilities to bear, we can see the Lord as the one who loves us and takes care of us.
Like a mother or father cares for the needs of their children, so the Lord cares for our needs.
In Matthew 6:8, Jesus reminds us that our Father knows what we need before we even ask. And, while we can’t see the final outcome, he does.
Remember the Lord’s sovereignty
The verses directly before 1 Peter 5:7 tells us about the importance of humility. The act of humbling oneself under God’s mighty hand is an act of surrender and submission to God’s sovereignty. It means that we remember that the Lord is God and we’re not.
The truth is, we cannot bear our burdens on our own. They are too heavy. The Lord, instead, is strong enough to bear them for us.
We don’t have to pick our burdens back up each day or hold them tightly in our arms. We can release them with confidence that the Lord will take care of them.
Conclusion
As long as we live on this earth, we’ll deal with things that feel burdensome. Whether it’s day to day responsibilities, work, finances, hardship, or anxiety about the future, we don’t have to bear our burdens alone. The Lord is strong enough to sustain us.
Footnotes:
1 Attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, Lutheran theologian (1892–1971), https://www.marquette.edu/faith/prayer-serenity.php.
Photo Credit: Michael Marcagi
Shanté is the founder of Daily She Pursues, an online women’s ministry on a mission to help women pursue God’s heart through the study of the Word, cultivating prayer, and walking daily with the Lord. She is currently working on a Master’s Degree in Biblical Studies at Liberty University. Some of her favorite things include tea, journaling, art museums, essential oils, and thrift shopping.
