Commitments & Burdens
Hi Friends,
Today I am in Ohio visiting my daughter and her family. I received a vision while here. It is about the Lord's work, our integrity, and the burdens we carry. Each of us has a part to play in God’s plan. We belong to his kingdom and we are to fit neatly into the body of Christ, performing the function for which God has designed and equipped us.
This is the vision:
First I see a wooden drawer filled with papers. The papers are all mixed up, going in every direction. There seemed to be no order whatsoever.
Next I see an orange toy train, resembling those of the “Thomas the Tank Engine” series, with human faces. The orange tanker is looking at a string of train cars all loaded with gravel. They are filled and leaving the quarry. The engine is getting ready to carry a load himself.
What I believe the vision means:
The Papers in the Drawer
I believe the papers represent unfinished business. These papers were placed in the drawer at one time to be saved, or to be acted upon at some more “convenient” time in the future.
As time goes by, these papers and the required action they originally demanded, have been neglected. How many papers are duplicates of past due bills? How many of them are important documents like insurance policies, auto or health records? How many of them are considered “important” but are never given priority? How many papers are saved as momentos? How many are receipts that should be filed with the taxes? How many should be discarded?
Overall, the packed drawer represents confusion, and disorganization. It represents neglect. It literally is calling to be cleaned out. Those papers demanding attention, need to be given priority, acted upon, completed and filed in an organized manner. The needless papers that were carelessly tossed into the drawer need to be purged, shredded, thrown out or recycled.
In a spiritual sense, these papers are promises and commitments.
“I’ll be praying for you.”
“I’ll give you a call next week.”
“I’ll send a donation.”
“I’ll begin my fast tomorrow.”
“I’ll write a letter and send her a book”
“I’ll join you on that outreach, next time.”
These are all “good intentions” that have never materialized. These are promises that we make and either really intend to keep, or are made merely as quick responses to avoid an immediate commitment or action.
The Lord wants us to be people of integrity, people of our word, and people of The Word. The promises we make to the Lord, as well as those we make to other people are important. We should make every effort to keep them.
Jonah was a prophet who had trouble keeping his promises. He was entrusted to deliver a message from the Lord, to Nineveh, but because of fear, he decided to board a ship and go the opposite way. After nearly drowning, and spending three days in the belly of a huge fish, he finally decided that he should do as God had requested. “What I have vowed I will make good.” Jonah 2:9
When we keep our commitments, and are faithful in completing the tasks the Lord asks us to do, our lives work. The people around us know that we can be trusted to keep our promises. If we say we will do something, they can trust us to get it done.
However, human nature being what it is, succumbs to fear, temptation and manipulation. When the spirit is weak, our flesh can take over the heart, and our actions can cause us to sin. Paul speaks of this dilemma in the book of Romans: “For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate - I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.” Romans 7:15-17
To overcome our sinful nature, our fears and the things that keep us from being a person of his word, we must become people of the Word, and people filled with the Holy Spirit. We must develop a hunger for righteousness and we must hunger for the presence of God. For the flesh desires the things of the world and will succumb to creating lies, making excuses, and complaining. “But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23
The Toy Train and the Loaded Cars
The toy train, sees the fully loaded cars and is ready and willing to take his turn. Because he is an engine, he will not merely carry one load himself, but will carry all the cars in the train that are fully loaded. This is truly an example of what the Lord does for us. When we bring to him our burdens, he takes them from us and carries them. He gives us peace in return!
The vision also reminds me of an earlier vision of ants. The ants in the vision, represented intercessors. They were scurrying around the top of an ant hill, but none of them were carrying a load, and none of them were working together as would be the normal thing for ants to do. A normal ant carries a load a distance and then passes his load to another ant, who carries it a distance and then passes it off to another ant. Each time one ant passes a load, he is ready to receive a load from another ant. But in the vision, not one ant was working to carry a load, nor was even one going down the ant hole.
By this vision, God was pointing out that the intercessors at this church were not working with each other. They were not carrying their burdens, or the burdens of others, to the Lord in prayer, as they were supposed to do. And they were not going deeper with God, as represented by the ants not going down the hole of the anthill.
In the current vision, the toy train is ready and willing to take on the loads. If the toy engine represents the Lord, we must ask ourselves, “Do we take our burdens to the Lord? Are we willing to give him our problems, or do we like to hold onto them and just complain? When we give him our troubles, he gives us peace. When we hold onto them, we become grumblers, or complainers.
Many people would rather keep their troubles because they identify with them. Their troubles actually describe who they are. Their troubles give them something to talk about as if their troubles were their friend. They take their troubles with them wherever they go, and speak of them often.
But none of our troubles bring God glory, they merely speak of our inability to live in the victory and freedom that the Lord provides. Often these are things of which the Lord has not burdened us, but they are in fact, things that we have made part of us.
I have prayed with quite a few people who have asked for prayer, but whose inmost desire is that their circumstance would not change. Hard to believe, yet very true. After praying with them for a change in life, to be set free of a physical condition, or freedom from an emotional attachment. I would expect them to want to walk in their new found freedom. But instead, I am baffled at the fact that they immediately pick up their problem, as if the prayer that I prayed was meaningless. It is as if they were to say, “Thanks for giving me the attention I needed, so now I’ll just take my problem with me and I’ll see you another time. Ta-ta!”
When this happens, I ask myself, “Why did she bother to ask for prayer, if she doesn’t really want to experience deliverance, or healing, or freedom? But the answer is simple. She has made a friend of her problem. The real problem is that the enemy has become familiar. Her problem has become who she is. She can no longer relate to others without telling them of her problem. This becomes a hindrance to having meaningful relationships with other people.
If we are to be the Lord’s disciples, then we are to “take up our cross daily and follow him.” This is not the same thing as trudging around and complaining to everyone we meet about the heavy burdens we are carrying. But to follow the Lord means to be like him.
But we must ask ourselves, are we ready and willing to do what God asks of us? Are we willing to take upon ourselves the Lord’s yoke? Are we willing to take up our cross?
“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 light.” Matthew 11:29-30
Are we like Paul, who was willing to be “poured out as a drink offering to the Lord,” or are we like Jonah who ran off in the opposite direction?
Are we afraid to make a commit to God or anyone else?
Are we afraid to associate with people that are different than we are?
Are we afraid we will become overly taxed or burdened by helping someone in need?
Are we afraid that to do the Lord’s work will be inconvenient or take away too much of our personal time?
Are we unwilling to make a commitment that interferes with one of our favorite activities?
Are we afraid of meeting new people?
Are we afraid of making a commitment in our personal relationships?
Are we afraid of stepping out?
Are we afraid of looking foolish?
Are we afraid of rejection?
Are we afraid of the unknown?
Where does fear come from? It comes from the enemy of our souls. It is the devil. He does everything he can to make us unproductive, unfruitful, and powerless in the kingdom of God. He wants to cause fear in us so that we do nothing for the Lord. He wants our lives to count for nothing. Ultimately he wants our faith to be so weak as to be non-existent. He would like nothing more than to take us to Hell to suffer the same fate that is his.
Yet, somehow we can be blind to the simple truth that the Lord promises to give us rest. He says in the full passage of that same scripture, “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 light.” Matthew 11:28-30
So let us unburden ourselves with the things we were not meant to carry. And when we see someone who is heavily burdened, the word says to: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2
And what is that law? “‘Love the Lord your God, with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40.
And if someone is carrying something they are not meant to carry, pray for them and encourage them to give their burdens to the Lord. We want everyone to live in freedom and in the joy of the Lord. We want others to find the Lord and enter into his rest.
Be blessed!
