Often life throws too many things at us at once. Something always shows up in our lives that we must “deal” with. Whether the things being thrown are life shattering or miniscule, if our fragile hearts and minds do not have time to rest, we will start to feel overwhelmed.
Crippling moments of irrational anxiety or fear are not an exaggeration nor a dramatization to get attention. They are not aesthetic, emotion-filled journal entries. They are an actual matter of carrying weight around with you. These moments entangle us in ourselves. We think too much about what we must or mustn’t do. We forget that we can’t walk this world alone. We refuse to rely on others for emotional, physical, or spiritual support. We convince ourselves we can do it all on our own, without God and without our brothers and sisters.
Too many situations, thoughts, worries, or circumstances cause me to go into a sort of haze and I begin drifting through life rather than dancing. Often times, we just try to assuage these negative feelings with distractions and try to wish these moments of anxiety away. That is not how God designed us to go through life. We should be awake, alive and living with purpose.
How comforting it is to know that Christ understands our affliction more than any other can. He has felt the very emotions we struggle with. Pain, stress, sadness, discomfort, etc. He knew these better than any of us. But I think the difference in our affliction and His, is that He took every burdensome thing to the Father in humility. He knew in His humanity he could not bear them alone.
Our Heavenly Father knows that for us to bring our anxieties to Him, we must be humbled. 1 Peter 5:6-7 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.” I think we often interpret this wrongly. It’s not “humble yourselves so you can cast all your cares on Him” -- it is rather “cast all your cares on Him so you might be humbled." John Piper said, “Somehow the command for humility makes the command to cast our anxiety on God more urgent, more needed.”
He also knows the hearts he created and that the only way we can be truly comforted is to lay your burdens down at His feet. John Piper’s sermon was titled, “Anxiety: to be cast, not carried.” Piper points out that the same word used in 1 Peter for casting our anxieties on him is the same word used in Luke 19:35, “They brought it to Jesus, and casting their garments on the colt, they set Jesus on it.” So, just as you would place your baggage on a donkey so it, not you, will carry the heavy load, we must let God carry our heavy load.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon on you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus promised us that there will be tribulation but “take heart; He has overcome the world.” (John 16:33) When our hearts are burdened by unchangeable circumstance, we must look to the cross in hope of peace. God is the lifter of our heads, the ultimate healer of wounds and the perfect peacemaker.
