By Pastor Shana Wise
Read Matthew 11:28-30 (NKJV)
God did not create us to carry unnecessary burdens.
God sent his son Jesus to be the burden carrier. Yet, we often end up carrying burdens unknowingly because of our lack of communication with the Father.
Jer.33:3 ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ (NKJV)
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God wants us to consult him about every area of our life. Major decisions, career, family, finances, relationship, and the list goes on. We tend to consult God only when we will we need Him-meaning last resort. Or we want to seek His face when our situation is so bad that we have no other choice but to call on him.
Jer. 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
God knew and knows the plan that he has for our life. It was set before the foundation of the earth (Jer. 1:5). As we journey through life, we must constantly seek direction from on high. If we don’t, we find ourselves doing a lot of things that have nothing to do with our purpose. We waste precious time that could have been used serving God and our purpose.
When we get to the point of living life based on our decisions and choices rather than God’s will for our life, we will pick up and carry burdens that were never meant for us. The world and its systems love to put burdens on God’s children. The worldly system is set up to keep us distracted and unfocused from the Kingdom of God. The world has an agenda comes with burdens specifically designed to keep us down, bound, and distracted.
Here are some examples of the world’s agenda that carries burdens:
· Living in the opinions of others (pleasing others more than pleasing God)
· Chasing after money (not being good stewards over what has been given to us)
· Image (how we appear to look to others rather than how we look to God)
· Reputation (making a name for ourselves rather than for God)
· Making decisions based on emotions and feelings (rather than based on our faith and the Word)
· Feeling the need to always be in control (instead of letting go and letting God)
· Pride (instead of humility)
· Living in Fear (2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind).
· Vanity (feeling that it’s all about me, myself, and I. God created us to be in unity with others)
There are many other examples we can examine when it comes to the world's agenda, but they all narrow down to this concept: Not trusting God in every area of our lives.
God knows that all his children struggle with carrying burdens that they are not supposed to carry. This problem started in the Garden of Eden when sin entered. Adam and Eve chose to carry the burden of sin through the decision of eating the forbidden fruit. Before they sinned, they did not have the burden of hardships, suffering, or pain to carry because it did not exist. They were totally in the will of God and they walked in the purpose that they were created to do on a daily basis.
God has a remedy for us who feel weighed down by the burdens of life. It is through his son Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the burden carrier. What he did on the cross benefited us because we gained access not only to eternal life but we have access to the abundant life here on earth as well. This abundant life that is available to all of us has specific answers to the problems and challenges that we experience here on earth.
Here is the remedy to those of us that have heavy burdens that we do not know how to handle:
Matthew 11:28-30 (NKJV)
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
John 14:6, Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
We must know that we have someone to go to when the weight of the world is pressing in on us. His name is Jesus Christ. The rest that we find in Christ is the peace of God that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7). Burdens have a way of making us forget the joy and peace that we possess through Christ Jesus. The peace that Jesus gives leads to rest. This rest can lead to physical rest through the ease of the mind, spirit, and soul. Burdens can keep us up at night worrying about things that God has already worked out. We must learn to come to Jesus (in our heart, mind, and spirit) and give whatever it is to him.
Learning the ways of Christ, specifically his gentleness and “lowly in heart”, comes through walking with him daily. Luke 9:23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me”. This scripture reminds us that it is not about us, rather it is about what Jesus has for us to do through our walk with him.
When we are walking with him, through his Word, then we are resting in Him, through the peace that comes with the Word.
The world's agenda teaches that following Christ is hard and it is a burden. The deception in that statement is that their agenda brings heavyweights, bondage, chains, burdens, despair, unruliness, ungodliness, and other negative connotates with it. Christ's agenda comes with all the benefits of the Kingdom. The benefits of the Kingdom represent the promises of God through his Word. God’s way of doing things is only hard for the believer who doesn’t totally trust Him. Being obedient to the Word is not a burden (or hard to do), we make it hard through our inconsistencies to it.
In Matthew 11:28-30 Christ is extending as an invitation to come to him. The invitation headline reads: YOU ARE INVITED TO HAVE ETERNAL AND ABUNDANT LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. The question is will you accept the invitation? This invite comes with the benefit of Jesus carrying the heavy loads that you have been carrying for so long. Whatever it is sickness, pain, hurt, depression, loneliness, poverty, bad relationship, abuse, addiction, etc., you do not have to have those things weighing you down any longer. Give them to Jesus, through giving your life to him today!
About the Author
Dr. Shana Wise is an ordained Pastor and CEO of Wise Choice Ministries (est. 2016). She is the founder of The Well Christian Women’s Network formally known as Christian Women Preachers United. Dr. Wise is the author of women’s devotional, Acts of Intercession, and The Impact of Your Election (available on Amazon). She received a doctor of divinity degree in 2019 from St. Thomas Christian University. Her passion is to teach and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, equip others to apply the Word to their lives, and demonstrate the Word through the power of the Holy Spirit. She is a televangelist that appears on social media outlets and television. Shana is married to Ron Wise and is the mother of four children.
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