News We Need To Hear

The Lord deserves praise!
Day after day he carries our burden,
the God who delivers us.

Psalm 68:19 

 

Maybe you were like me growing up.  We attended the First Baptist Church of Don't.  SO many rules and regulations about how to look; how to act; what to say; to whom to say it; when to speak; when not to speak; what to read; what not to read; where to go; where not to go; and on and on and on.  

 

I felt, as a teenager, that church was a bunch of rules which was a huge burden.  AND I felt, because God's made them, then God was a burden as well.  The more I grew, the more I resented it.  I was tired of carrying so much guilt and anxiety. Constantly asking for forgiveness from God.  Hardly a day went by that I didn't feel like a complete failure and drug that heavy burden of guilt everywhere.

It wasn't until much later in life that I learned how wrong I was.  God isn't the burden.  God carries our burden.  We have to learn to let our burden go. 

I was watching a National Geographic program and found that in Indonesia, farmers will trap monkeys by putting their favorite food in a jar.  The opening of the jar is just big enough for the monkey to slip his hand inside.  But when the monkey grabs the goodies, he can't get his hand back out and becomes trapped.  One farmer put our struggle so perfectly when he said, "All he has to do to be free is let go of his burden."

Isn't it time for us to let go of our burden and let God set us truly free?