Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
The blessings of God are for all of His Precious Children. He waits in Heaven to open its windows and literally pour out His Goodness on people. If only we could learn to wait on the Lord expectantly to fulfill His Will which is not only to bless us but to remove the burden that comes with it. Everyone would love to have a brand new car. Each day when I drive to work, I pass several automobile dealerships filled with bright and shiny options. It never fails that there is always one along the way that catches my eye. I have a perfectly acceptable vehicle that does a fine job of carrying me back and forth from work, church and home. It sufficiently carries my family on trips both near and far. It has proven quite faithful in all endeavors and is paid in full. When I look at those new automobiles, I can almost smell that “new car smell” that I think they spray inside for unsuspecting victims such as myself. However, when I get good and worked up over the dream of owning one sets in. Although better gas mileage would be a bonus, I remember the little booklet that arrived in the mail a month after I bought the car we have now. Making the monthly payments until the day arrived that we were able to satisfy the note, when I left the bank and got back in the same car it felt new all over again. I was released from the burden associated with my blessing so now it really was a gift. All those months of making the payment and yearning to be released from the debt, I thought the Lord had provided transportation for our family but had we jumped the gun. Is it possible that God had a vehicle in mind that would not require monthly payments and the oppressive heaviness of debt? I guess I won’t know until I get to Heaven and see all the things that God had for me that I missed because I chose to rush in rather than waiting expectantly, patiently and courageously on the Lord. I do not intend to make the same mistake twice. Jesus invites us today to take a load off. He says, “Come to me all who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest!” His yoke (weight) is easy and the burden will be light for those who live by faith and not according to the flesh. Those who learn to live in humility with a humble heart will find rest for their souls.
Psalm 55:22 (NLT)
Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.
Giving one’s burdens to the Lord is sometimes much easier in writing than it is in life. We accumulate so many burdens and carefully adjust the weight in order to carry, drag, push or pull it through life that we become accustomed to it. People do not even realize how heavy the oppression of debt and responsibility really is unless one day they experience release. Give your burdens to the Lord and He will take care of you. There is no question that the Lord is our Provider today and has everything we need including the strength to keep us from falling if we will turn over all the weight that has been holding us back.
Psalm 37:4-6 (AMP)
Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass. And He will make your uprightness and right standing with God go forth as the light, and your justice and right as [the shining sun of] the noonday.
We are not called to build a better life for our children or save ourselves from sin. We were made to love God completely. He promises to do the rest if we will give Him responsibility for our life through Jesus Christ. Good luck with that as one must overcome the flesh and all of its desires and demands to defeat the enemy’s control of our mind soul and body. The enemy of your soul knows that if he can someone convince you to take control of your life that he will lead you right back into the darkness from where you came. “Commit your way to the Lord” is translated to “roll and repose each care of your load to Him” in the Amplified Bible. I love this. To commit your way to the Lord is not about doing all the right things, pleasing all the right people or saying all the right things to fulfill some divine checklist that will be tallied as we pass from death to life one day. It is an invitation to wait expectantly, patiently and courageously on the Lord to do everything that He said He was going to do. We do this anchored by faith and confident hope that convinces us of His Loving Faithfulness each day and in every situation. For those who are able to trust, lean on, rely on and be confident, it says that HE will bring it to pass. What a relief in recollection of how many times I have jumped in front of God and how many times that I have lagged behind not to mention the numerous occasions when I missed it altogether usually due to doubt and impatience. He gives me one thing to focus on and one thing alone. To delight in the Lord, that’s it. The sole purpose of my life summed up in five little words, but how can I delight in the Lord if I am worrying about every little detail of my life and assuming full responsibility. God will even empower me to remain righteous through His Love, Mercy and Grace found in the Blood of Jesus. It makes me just and right as the noonday sun that becomes evident when I learn to love and trust Him expectantly, patiently and courageously.
Psalm 27:13-14 (NLT)
Yet I am confident I will see the LORD’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.
Here’s a little secret that that God has revealed to me. He is not holding back His Goodness from me because He is angry with me. He is not doing less than His Best because I have failed Him. If I miss out on a blessing that He has prepared for me as long as I am alive and breathing, the opportunity to receive is still there. When I was a teenager, I longed for a used Pontiac Trans Am like the one in the movie, “Smokey and the Bandit.” My grandfather and I stopped to look at the car when I was 16 years old. My heart thundered in my chest as hope overflowed that He would grant me my greatest desire which at that very moment had four wheels and a sunroof. After pacing around the car several times, my grandfather finally had made a decision. He said, “As much as I would like to give you this car and as happy as it would make you, I think it would ruin you. You would not be able to focus on important things like school if I gave this to you now.” I was crushed. As time passed, my grandfather would buy me a car. It was practical and I would make many happy memories in it. I am drawn to that moment now as I think about the Lord. He is a Good Father who will not give His Children anything with a burden attached. There will be no burden, worry or debt attached to it. We must be patient and wait on the Lord to perfect that which He is preparing for you!
Proverbs 10:22 (NLT)
The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich and he adds no sorrow with it.
I rebuke the lie of the enemy that has convinced you may have missed God’s Blessing in your life. I assure you that He intends to give you nothing than His Very Best. The Lord adds no sorrow with it. Sorrow is regret, remorse, hardship, sadness or trouble. The most valuable thing the Lord can give you is wisdom based on knowledge and understanding His Word. If you will take the time to discover the rich treasury in His Word and Will, you will be blessed. You cannot help it. It will overtake you as you walk in His Ways. The only thing God is waiting on is you! (Isaiah 30:18) Once you turn over responsibility and control of every day to seek to know Him more and serve Him well, He will do the rest…all of it. You will be complete lacking no good thing. (James 1:4) Loving God means keeping His Commandments which is not burdensome. (I John 5:3) The burdens weighing down your life are representative of areas not fully surrendered to the Lord. He has invited you to come and release every single burden of your life to Him. This can only be done by faith. Faith without works is dead therefore hanging on to the responsibility and burden for your life and making it good will reveal the very things you doubt about God today. His Blessing promises to make you rich adding no sorrow to your life. The rest is up to you. Take a load off and give your life to Jesus – all of it.
Psalm 40:1-3 (NLT)
I waited patiently for the LORD to help me and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the LORD.
He turned to me. The only reason that God would have to turn to me is if somehow I moved in the wrong direction or stepped out of His Will. The psalmist waited for the Lord to help him. He cried out to God from despair and devastation. Sometimes God has to use a pit to move us to the palace, just ask Joseph who dreamed of his fabulous future. He did not anticipate the hardship that produces the heavenly in life. The road to God’s Blessing may seem hard and long but do not jump out of God’s Will, fall behind in His Plan, or leave His Path altogether there is too much to lose. God’s Dreams and Visions are for a future time. They are a glimpse of hope designed to make you hunger and thirst for His Will, His Way and His Word. (Habakkuk 2:2) Do not rush the Lord. He is working out every single detail of your blessing for good. God is removing the burden associated with your blessing. If you take it too soon, then you assume responsibility for its outcome. Our sinful nature hates to wait and will entice us to make things happen when God is not working fast enough. By doing, it becomes our burden and responsibility to bring it to pass because we did not trust God enough to let Him do it and take away the oppressive sorrow that is attached. He is perfecting every detail for you His Precious Child. Whenever my girls and I bake cookies, it is a fight to keep them out of the dough. They love its creamy delicious goodness. They get it from their mama. But the raw eggs are not good for them until cooked so I try to keep them from eating them. When I am unsuccessfully in fending them off and they lick the bowl clean, they do not want the cookies when they are done because the batter made them sick. Same thing goes for a farmer who harvests his crop before it is ready, what would have brought him wealth now costs him greatly. Nobody wants vegetables and fruit that are not ripe and ready to eat. They are bitter and sour. (James 5:7-8)
Romans 3:3-5 (NLT)
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
Patience takes confidence and courage. I must be confident that I will see God’s Goodness in the land of the Living and believing it enough to wait for it. Patience requires courage. It is to place our life in God’s Hands according to His Timing based on faith in His Will, His Way and His Word. He has not left us alone in this endeavor. Jesus gave us His Spirit that enabled Him to fulfill God’s Plan for His Life even though it meant great hardship and suffering followed by a very long wait. Endurance is nothing more than the process by which we learn patience. The Lord is stretching and molding our faith with endurance that allows us to wait on the Lord while He works out every detail to His Perfection removing the burden that would weight His People down.
Romans 8:28-29 (NLT)
We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Focus on following His Way, obeying His Word, and having God’s Will today. You were given hope when you were saved by accepting His Promise by faith and entering a Covenant of Love with Your Father. His Kingdom holds every single desire of your heart with no strings, burdens or weights attached. He is ready to make them happen in your life. You haven’t missed a single thing. In fact, things are heating up and just starting to look good. If you miss the mark today, don’t worry. He promises to provide new mercies tomorrow as you start all over again according to His Grace and Love. (Lamentations 3:22-26) His New Mercy allows us to experience what we missed yesterday due to failed patience. Let God’s Spirit help you to successfully receive all that God has promised you in His Word. It is for you. It will come. You just have to expect it by faith, wait for it with patience and be courageous until He comes. The Father knows your heart and intends to fulfill the desires there according to His Will. Release responsibility for your life including making yourself happy. God will fill you to the uttermost with good things and your heart will overflow with peace and joy. He will cause every single detail of your life to work together for good. HE WILL CAUSE EVERY SINGLE DETAIL OF YOUR LIFE TO WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD! This should cause your heart to break into abundant praise as you realize all that time you thought was wasted is coming together to be a blessing in your life. The hardship was not for nothing and the long road created endurance that allows you to wait for something more. Take a load off today! Wait on the Lord expectantly, patiently and courageously!
Ephesians 3:5-6 (NLT)
God did not reveal it to previous generations, but now by his Spirit he has revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets. And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus.
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