Jesus Will Carry Your Burdens

**This post was one I wrote several years ago, on February 17, 2015 during a sad, heavy-hearted time. While I am not currently sad, or heavy-hearted, I know that many are, and many are carrying extra burdens, extra duties, and extra cares & stresses during this present time in our world. I’d like to revisit this post with reminders for times like these.**

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” Psalm 34:18 (NLT) 

My heart is so heavy, burdened and sad this past week.  I have had to remind and tell myself that “Jesus will carry your burdens.”  I am fine, and I have had no personal loss.  Unfortunately though some of my friends have, which makes me hurt for them.  For some reason I just feel like there’s so much sadness (like I said…my heart feels heavy).  If you know me at all, you know that I’m a person of great empathy.  I hurt when others hurt.

This past week a friend of mine unexpectedly lost her husband.  I can’t even begin to imagine the pain and suffering that she and her children must be enduring.  There’s also a feeling of helplessness because there is absolutely nothing that I can say or do to take away any of their pain.  I absolutely HATE death and the pain that it brings with it.

Sad times

On the same day that I learned about my friend’s husband, I saw that a girl I went to high school with had died unexpectedly as well.  I honestly didn’t know her well, but my heart still hurt for her family and children.  What must they be going through?  Then to top it all off, again on the same day I found out that another friend lost one of her dogs.  Her dog was also a black lab like my dog Cinders that I had recently lost, which caused memories of losing her to flood back in.  That same week we lost Cinders, my sister lost her Husky puppy to a tragic accident (the very same stubborn puppy that I wrote about here).  So now, I was not only empathetically sad for others that were hurting, I was revisiting the pain of some of my recent losses too.

So much sadness.  It just felt so heavy hurting for everyone (and for myself and my memories).  Then a verse came to mind (aka…God speaking).  I had actually just read it that morning in my quiet time: 

“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 (NLT) 

God was reminding me that Jesus will carry our burdens for us.  We don’t have to carry them on our own.  We can give them over and rest in Him.  That doesn’t mean that the pain goes away, but he can lighten our load and remove some of the heaviness we feel.  

A burden lightened…in an interesting way

I remember that sadness and heaviness when Cinders died.  I remember praying and asking God to help me with it.  He did.  Call it a daydream, a vision (or just call me crazy…I’ve been called worse!), but after we buried her I was sitting out by her grave crying. An image came to mind.

I pictured Jesus (the stereotypical image of him–white gown, beard and all), and he was smiling softly and carrying Cinders in his arms.  I could tell she was Cinders, but she was a younger version of her—no more gray face, thinner and slightly smaller (reminded me of Philippians 3:21).  She jumped out of his arms and started running circles around him like she used to do when she was very young.  She would run as fast as she could with her bottom really close to the ground and growl/grunt as she ran…errrr….errrr…errrr!

Jesus started laughing at her as she was running and jumping around.  It was like He was showing her to me in heaven…that she was okay and not hurting anymore.  She was happy and having fun—her normal, happy self (that’s why the poem I found for her blog post was so perfect).  She wasn’t sad at all.  I remember, prior to this image of her, thinking she would be sad and miss us, but I was reminded that there is no sadness in heaven.

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.  All these things are gone forever.” Revelation 21:4 (NLT)

As I sat there seeing this image of my happy puppy, I thought, “She’ll have to wait a long time before we see her.”  I saw Jesus reply to me, “She won’t know.  It won’t seem like a long time to her.  It will be like she just saw you.”  I wondered if that was one thing this verse might mean…

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” 2 Peter 3:8 (NIV) 

In that moment, my heaviness was lifted.  I was given hope and peace.  Even though I was still very sad and still very much in pain, I felt somewhat lighter.  My burden had been lightened.  I wasn’t alone.

Neither are you.  Jesus will carry your burdens too.

Take Some Practical Steps to Let Jesus Carry Your Burdens:

• First, cast your burdens (your cares, your worries, your pain, your heaviness, etc.) on to Jesus.  

A definition of “cast” is to throw something forcefully into a specified direction.  We need to “throw” those burdens forcefully in God’s direction and quit trying to carry them on our own.  I tend to “cast” in one of two ways: I pray and verbally say “God, I give this _____ to you”, or I will mentally picture myself putting an image of whatever my burden is in my hand and handing it up toward God (then a GIANT hand comes out of the sky and takes it out of my hand! 🙂 )

To “cast” also makes me think of casting when fishing.  I’m HORRIBLE at casting a fishing pole.  I have even hooked my hand on the hook/lure a time or two.  Ouch.  It takes some practice to cast correctly.  Just the same, it may take a time or two of casting your cares to Jesus before you get the hang of it, but He WILL carry your burdens for you if you’ll give them to Him.

• Next, know that God truly cares about you, AND He will destroy death one day.  

Jesus WANTS to carry your burdens.  He hurts when you hurt.  That’s where we get empathy—it’s a characteristic of God.  He hates death and loss as much as we do.  In fact, God says death is our enemy.  The Bible says death will be the last enemy to be destroyed.  We can have hope to know that someday there will be no more death.

“Casting all your care on Him, because He cares about you.” 1 Peter 5:7 (HCSB)
“The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” 1 Corinthians 15:26 (ESV)

• Then, know that God will sustain you.

You are going to be okay.  You may have to exercise some of the strategies to get through a hard time (like we discussed in this previous post), but you are going to make it through this.  God will not let the righteous be moved or shaken (that’s YOU if you’ve accepted Jesus as your Lord—if you haven’t, read this).  When you let Jesus carry your burdens, you will be able to endure the pain and carry on.

“Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.” Psalm 55:22 (ESV)

• Finally, don’t dismiss the things that give you comfort/peace.

It would have been easy for me to dismiss that image I had of Jesus and Cinders.  I could have told myself, “Oh, that was just a daydream.  It wasn’t real, and it didn’t mean anything.”  How do I know that God didn’t do that (give me a “vision”) just for me?  I believe He did.  It did comfort me and give me peace.  It did lighten my burden that day (and since).  Don’t dismiss it when He does the same for you.  It just might be one way that He will carry your burdens.  Just accept the peace that it gives you and rest.

“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 (NLT)

How has Jesus helped you carry your burdens? Tell us about it by leaving a comment below.

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If you have benefited from this post or if you know anyone that could benefit from this, please pay it forward and share this post with them via the sharing links below! “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)

**Updated: original post 2/17/2015