Casting Burdens

I am away from my computer this weekend, but this thought so encouraged me this week, I wanted to share it with you. I hope it encourages you as much as it did me.

There are burdens in life that are so heavy, we must seek God’s help to carry them. The longer we attempt to struggle beneath the weight without seeking God’s help, the more bitterness and anger toward the situation builds up and threatens our sanity. But here is God’s intention for those burdens: they are meant as gifts to us. Gifts that make us “need” Him. It is not as if we don’t always need Him, but when burdens threaten to crush us, we recognize our need for His help. This is the blessing of a burden.

Psalm 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

From Bible Hub, the word “cast” comes from the Hebrew verb “shalak” primarily meaning to throw or cast something, often with force or intention. It is used in various contexts, including the physical act of throwing objects, casting lots, or metaphorically casting away or rejecting something. The term conveys a sense of deliberate action, whether in a physical or symbolic sense.

As my previous pastor’s wife used to say, “Think of a Major League pitcher throwing a baseball ninety miles an hour. This is the way God wants us to throw every burden we carry at His feet.” It is when we cast it to God that we can recognize it as a gift from God.

Elisabeth Elliot wrote in her book, Suffering is Never for Nothing, “To my amazement and delight I discovered that that word burden in the Hebrew is the same word as the word for gift. This is a transforming truth to me. If I thank God for this very thing which is killing me, I can begin dimly and faintly to see it as a gift. I can realize that it is through that very thing which is so far from being the thing I would have chosen, that God wants to teach me His way of salvation. I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will say yes, Lord. I will say thank You, Lord.”

F.B Meyer writes of Ps. 55:22, “As the R. V. marginal rendering of v. 22 suggests, thy burden is that which God has given thee to carry. It did not come by chance nor from the evil intent of men. He cast it on thee; cast it back on him. We cannot do our work so long as we stoop beneath the exhausting waste of anxiety and care. Hand all over to thy Father’s care. Let no burdens break the Sabbath-keeping of thy heart!”

It is this kind of thinking that caused Paul to rejoice in the suffering he had previously begged God to remove. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10,

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Anything that makes us realize our need for God’s help is a gift sent intentionally from His loving hands. Somehow He transforms our burdens into the beautiful present of His Presence with us. And with His Presence comes His Peace.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on thee:
because he trusteth in thee.
Trust ye in the LORD for ever:
for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength: Isaiah 26:3-4

I pray this is a help and a blessing to you, my friends. Have a blessed week.

Erica B