Thanks for stopping by! This is Day 19 of my 2015 “31 Days Reflecting on God” series. Find the rest over here.

Throw your burden upon the Lord,
and he will sustain you.
He will never allow the godly to be upended. Psalm 55:22

And God will exalt you in due time, if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

An old hymn says
I must tell Jesus all of my trials,
I cannot bear these burdens alone;
In my distress He kindly will help me,
He ever loves and cares for His own. – Elisha Hoffman

As long as mankind has lived, we’ve had burdens to bear. And every person carries different burdens. I watch my children playing and see what burdens them. Their basic needs of food and sleep overwhelm them. Their desires for attention weigh down their little spirits when they aren’t being devoted to. Our family’s financial needs or my personal struggles can discourage my husband. For me personally, besides the tiring weight of raising the kids, things I can’t fix can feel like a heavy chain on my heart.

I so appreciate that God never assumes our lives are easy. Instead he treats the burdens and weights of life like an expected thing. We’ve got them, so what do we do with them?

God steps up to the plate and says, “Dump them here. I’ll help relieve some of that weight.” It just occurred to me that he doesn’t say he will carry them. To our all-knowing, problem-solving God, our trials aren’t burdens. Whether molehills or mountains are facing us they don’t stump or worry him. He has a plan for each of them.

Instead he promises that he will sustain US. He will care for US. His plan for us is to relieve our stress, to help us to breathe and walk a little straighter.

In the verses above, Peter links pride with our cares. God says clearly in his word that we are to trust him. We weren’t made to solve life’s problems on our own, or be some kind of superhero and carry their weight alone. Our pride tells us that we can do that.

So when we humble ourselves before God and confess his greatness and our smallness, then he will exalt us – lift our tired shoulders and bring us the peace and passion we need to keep going. He truly cares for us. So much that he hates that our pride keeps us weighed down with burdens we were never meant to carry alone. He alone is our sustainer.

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