Help is Near
We weren’t created to go through life carrying heavy burdens that weigh us down.
Thankfully, we don’t have to.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30 NIV
When Jesus came to earth, He took our burdens onto Himself. Even though we were far from God, Jesus carried the punishment for our wrongdoing and bore our suffering. And because of that, we have a Savior who understands and has compassion on us.
This Savior meets us in our mess, and invites us to find rest in Him. This Savior is God with us.
Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.
Psalms 68:19 NIV
King David wrote that Psalm hundreds of years before Jesus’ arrival. Even then, God was illustrating to people that His character was constant, and He was trustworthy.
God watched over Noah when the earth was flooded (Genesis 8:1), and He made a covenant with Abraham to bless, protect, and multiply his descendants (Genesis 17:4-7). He took care of the Israelites when they wandered through the wilderness (Deuteronomy 2:7), and He comforted David when people were trying to kill him.
God has never stopped being true to who He is. He is our ever-present help in time of need. He is our constant source of strength. He is our comforter and our provider. The God that David praises in Psalm 68 is our God. He is the One who continually takes care of us, stooping down to meet us in our mess and carry us out of brokenness.
He daily bears our burdens.
Will we still endure hard times? Yes. But we will never have to go through them alone. The Savior of the world is near. God is with us.
“Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? If I must boast, I will boast in...
“A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans: because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered: because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite. And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is The LORD of hosts. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary. The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon...