Casting Your Burden on the Lord

 

 

Not long ago someone set and appointment with me to talk about something that he had done a long time ago, years ago. It was a burden he was carrying that was suffocating him. We talked and I reminded him of God’s love and grace. Just in the act of talking about it I could see his burden slip from his shoulders. 

 

It’s humbling for me when I see the things that weigh people down. Past mistakes, extra marital affairs, broken relationships, financial hardships, and the list goes on and on. They remind me that we are all travelers on the road of life. If there is one thing that binds us together as humans is we’ve all screwed up at one time or another. 

 

Because of this I always return to a few passages from the Bible that give us a different vision of our mistakes and the loads we carry.  

 

“Cast your burden on the Lord and the Lord will sustain you”

Psalm 55:22

 

“Cast all your anxiety on the Lord because the Lord cares for you.” 

1 Peter 5:7

 

 

I find a great deal of meaning in these verses. God understands that we have burdens. God knows we’re anxious. God knows we’re mere humans that are fragile at best, and broken at our worse. 

 

But God is good, caring, and compassionate. God is here to lift our burdens. 

 

The word “cast” is akin to an ancient form of fishing where the one doing the fishing takes a net and casts it out into the water for a huge scoop of fish. The person fishing takes the net, winds up and flings it out into the water. What a great image for us and our worries and burdens. 

 

God wants us to take our bag of burdens and anxiety’s and fling them like casting a net. 

 

Notice we’re not flyfishing casting one artistic cast at a time hoping for one fish. Nor are we using bait where we throw out a line and then sit and wait for a catch. No, we fling it all at one time in a big wide girth. 

 

Sometimes we have to fling the net again and again because we make the mistake of dragging the burdens all back in with us and dumping the load in our boat to be picked up again. 

 

So I encourage you to take your load of mistakes and worries and anxieties, haul back and throw them at the Lord. Do it over and over again until they’re not on your back, your mind, or your heart any more. 

 

Why do we do these things? Simply because the promise is God will sustain us, and God cares for us. 

 

And that makes all the difference in the world. 

 

 

Steve