Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you. –Psalm 55:22 ESV

I recently read about a 25-year-old Army veteran suffering from degenerative arthritis.

“Arthritis is supposed to happen when you get old,” he told a Seattle Times reporter. “What’s it going to be like when I’m 50 or 60?”

The arthritis has caused painful bone spurs in the vertebrae in his neck and can be traced to carrying 70 to 80 pounds of equipment when he served in Iraq.

The human body is just not made to lift and carry heavy loads. Even with training, you can only carry so much.

Likewise, the human spirit can only carry so much for so long.

Burdens. Physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. We all have to deal with them. It comes with living in this world.

How do we deal with burdens?

According to my Bible, we either carry them or cast them.

Take Moses, for example. He carried the burden of leading the contrary, complaining people of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land.

“You lay the burden of all these people on me,” he said to God at one point.

So God told him to select 70 men from the elders. “I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone” (Numbers 11:17).

We are not meant to bear our burdens alone.

“Bear one another’s burdens,” God’s Word instructs us, “and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

Isn’t it so much easier when even one person comes alongside us and helps us? The thing about helping others is that when we get our minds off our own burdens and help someone else with theirs, ours don’t seem to be as heavy.

And then there’s Jesus. “Come to me,” He says, “all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

How do we give Jesus our burdens to carry?

We cast them on Him.

“Cast your burden on the Lord,” David tells us, “and he will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22).

And if anyone had burdens to bear, it was him. Anointed king over Israel, David spent years in the wilderness, hiding in caves, fleeing from the murderous King Saul. And when he did become king, his own son attempted to usurp the throne. Yet read the psalms of David, and you’ll see he learned to cast his burdens on the Lord.

Peter tells us to “cast all your anxieties (cares, worries) on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

How do you cast your worries on God, give your burden to Jesus to carry?

First, refuse to allow your mind to dwell on your anxieties. Acknowledge them, don’t deny them, and release them through prayer (see Philippians 4:6–7). Imagine them soaring up to heaven, where God will take care of them, in His way and in His time.

Replace your worried thoughts with thoughts that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).

Celebrate the good things in your life. Keep a gratitude journal and write in it every day. And rejoice!

I’m still working on learning how to cast my cares on God, completely.

What burdens do you need to release to Him?

Help me, Lord, to cast all my care on You every moment of every day. Show me someone who needs help carrying their burden. Amen.

Read and meditate on Matthew 11:28–29.

© 2018 Michele Huey. All rights reserved.