'Bear Your
Own Burdens'
(Excerpt)
Gal
6:2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
"For
every man shall bear his own burden." (Gal 6:5) Is this a contradiction of verse 2?--By no
means. When the Scripture tells us to bear one another's burdens, it does not
tell us to throw our burdens on one another. Each one is to cast his burden on
the Lord. Ps.55:22.
Psa
55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall
never suffer the righteous to be moved.
He bears
the burden of the whole world, of all mankind, not in mass, but for each
individual. We cast our burdens on Him, not by gathering them up in our hands,
or with our mind, and hurling them from ourselves to one who is at a distance.
That can never be done. Many have tried to get rid of their burden of sin and
pain and care and sorrow, but have failed, and have felt it roll back upon
their own heads heavier than ever, until they have well-nigh sunk in despair.
What was the trouble?--Simply this: they regarded Christ as at a distance from
them, and they felt that they themselves must bridge the gulf. It is
impossible. The man who is "without strength" can not cast his burden
the length of his arm, and as long as we keep the Lord at arm's length, we
shall not know rest from the weary load.
It is
when we recognize and confess Him in us, as our sole support, our life, the One
whose power it is that makes every motion, and so confess that we are nothing,
and sink out of sight, no longer deceiving ourselves, that we leave the burden
resting on Christ. He knows what to do with it, and yoking up with Him we learn
of Him how to bear the burdens of others.
Then how about bearing our own burden?--Ah, it is the Divine "power
that worketh in us" that bears it! "I am crucified with Christ;
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." It is I, and yet
it is not I, but Christ.
Isa_26:12
LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works
in us.
Eph_3:20
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that worketh in us
Eph
3:7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of
God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
Php
2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.
Now I have
learned the secret. I will not weary somebody else with the story of my burden,
but will bear it myself, yet not I, but Christ in me.
There are
people enough in the world who have not yet learned this lesson of Christ, so
that every child of God will always find work to do in bearing burdens for
others; his own he will intrust to the Lord, to find whom he has no further to
go than to his own heart.
Is it not
blessed to have "One who is mighty" always under the burden which
falls upon our shoulders? This lesson we
learn from the life of Christ. He went about doing good, for God was with Him.
He comforted the mourners, He bound up the broken-hearted, He healed all that
were oppressed of the devil. Not one who came to Him with a tale of sorrow or a
distressing malady was turned away without relief; "that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our
infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." Matt.8:17.
And then
when night sent the multitude to their beds, He sought the mountain or the
forest, that in communion with the Father, by whom He lived, He might find a
fresh supply of life and strength for His own soul. "Let every man prove
his own work." "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove
your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you,
except ye be reprobates?" 2Cor.13:5. "Though He was crucified through
weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak with Him, but
we shall live with Him by the power of God." Verse 4, margin.
2Co_13:4
For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of
God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of
God…
So if our faith proves to us that Christ is
in us,--and faith proves to us the reality of the fact,--we have rejoicing in
ourselves alone, and not in another. We joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, and our joy does not depend upon any other person in the world.
Though all
should fail and be discouraged, we can stand, for the foundation of
God--Christ-standeth sure. Therefore let
no one who calls himself a Christian be content to lean on somebody else, but
let him, though he be the weakest of the weak, be a burden-bearer,--a worker
together with God,--in Christ bearing quietly and uncomplainingly his own
burdens, and those of his neighbors also. He can discover some of the burdens
of his uncomplaining brother, and bear them, and the other will do likewise. So
the rejoicing of the weak will be, "The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my
song; He also is become my salvation."
The Glad
Tidings
By E. J.
WAGGONER
(Excerpt- To be continued)
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