Burden Bearer
By Margaret D. Mitchell
Week of March 17, 2024
We can hear that we should cast our cares on The Lord so often that it can feel cliché at times. But God is taking us deeper in this area.
He’s about to send many of His faithful ones out to the nations. And in this light, Holy Spirit highlighted these verses in Isaiah 40 TPT to me:
Verse 17 tells us that “The nations are nothing in his eyes; he regards them as absolutely nothing.”
Verse 15 says, “Even the nations are to him like a drop in a bucket, regarded as nothing more than dust on a scale. He picks up the islands like fine grains of sand.”
“He reduces rulers to nothing and makes the elite of the earth as nothing at all. They barely get planted and barely take root in the position of power when the Lord blows on them and they wither away, carried off like straw in the stormy wind” (Isaiah 40:23-24 TPT).
“He sits enthroned high above the circle of the earth; to him the people of earth are like grasshoppers” (Isaiah 40:22 TPT)!
These passages help us keep “the nations” in God’s perspective.
If there’s one thing God taught me when I flew to countless destinations over the years—sometimes ten cities a day—is that the world is small. When you go from one place to another in a matter of minutes or hours, especially over a period of years, most places come to feel like your neighborhood.
And all of it was and still is temporary.
Sure, you could find your favorite people and venues, but you knew it would soon come to an end. Soon and very soon, you would go home and so would they. And then you would get ready for another new beginning.
And isn’t this how life is? A cycle?
There are mainstays and those you will not see again until Jesus comes for you. In the middle are countless transitions that involve the growth of setting boundaries, saying good-bye and relocating. And in the midst of it all, we come to know more than ever how much we need God.
We seek Him. He develops us. He sends us out. Again. And there we go. And here we are.
I believe this is what David knew intimately with God and walked out experientially. When we consider where David began and where he ended up, we can see the miraculous hand of God at work on his behalf. His powerful, ruling hand, as well as His outstretched, compassionate arms.
Oh, Lord, how we need You.
You never wear out. Your intelligence is unlimited (Isaiah 40:28). You infuse us with Your strength (Isaiah 40:29). Only in Your grace upon grace can we run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint (Isaiah 40:31).
You alone, God, are our King.
He says in Exodus 25:8 AMPC, "Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. [Hebrews 8:1, 2; 10:1.]," It’s in this dwelling place that we realize He’s bigger than all else, where He as Love drives out all our fears to reveal more of Himself.
He is why we can be a beacon to nations. His light in us.
Isaiah 40:26-28 TPT directs our attention onto Him alone by saying:
Lift up your eyes to the sky and see for yourself. Who do you think created the cosmos?
He lit every shining star and formed every glowing galaxy, and stationed them all where they belong.
He has numbered, counted, and given everyone a name. They shine because of God’s incredible power and awesome might; not one fails to appear!
Why, then, O Jacob’s tribes, would you ever complain? And my chosen Israel, why would you say, ‘Yahweh isn’t paying attention to my situation. He has lost all interest in what happens to me.’
Don’t you know? Haven’t you been listening? . . .
These words are a reminder to not drift away from dwelling with Him intimately. In our overwhelm, our busyness, our awareness of our inadequacy to do anything Kingdom on our own, we can look up and come near to Him again.
Isaiah 41:10 TPT tells us, “Never turn your gaze from me, for I am your faithful God.”
It’s the only way we can go the distance. And His Holiness is the only way that’s acceptable to God. It’s the only way we can be a bridge, a conduit, a voice of Good News to the nations to which He sends us.
Pray with me if you will . . .
Dear Lord,
Thank You that You are God and I am not.
Help us to freely cast our burdens onto You. You, who died to take every one.
Help us not to hold onto false responsibilities or false pride. Help us to remain within Your divine purposes, trusting that You can handle all that is too big for us.
Help us to continue to lean into Miraculous You as we go forward with You.
In Jesus’ Mighty Name,
Amen.
Margaret D. Mitchell is the Founder of God's Love at Work, a marketplace outreach purposed to share God's greatest power source - the love of Christ.
