Why Carry What You Don’t Need?

Dear friend,

Why are you so burdened?

Why are your shoulders drooping because of loads?

Why are you so worn out even though you have many years ahead of you?

Why is your joy so dampened with sighs and frustration?

Why are you bearing that load by yourself?

Most of what is weighing us down are burdens we didn’t need to carry in the first place. While some are those we need to lay at the feet of the cross, some are things we just need to let go of. Whichever one they are, we do not have to carry them. Not at all.

As I list some of these things, I pray you will find your burden and solutions.

• SADNESS OVER WHAT IS NOT GOTTEN YET

This happens mostly when we focus our attention on others and see their accomplishments, rather than focusing on ourselves and God. Here, we quickly forget that everyone has different timelines, that God’s time is the best, and that He makes everything beautiful at His time. The fact that you are not where you want to be or have what you want to have does not mean you won’t get there. We must learn not to time God but to follow His timing with gratitude and trust.

• FEAR OF THE FUTURE

Well….do you know the future? Why fear for what you don’t know? Why take up a burden that has not yet existed? Why let the time that has not come rob you of the time you are currently living in? 

The unknown things belong to God. God goes before His children to make crooked ways straight. He holds the future in His hands, and you are engraved in the palm of his hands.

Instead of worrying, plan and keep doing your best sincerely, and most importantly, intentionally hand over the key to your future into God’s hands. He knows just what to do.

• GUILT OF THE PAST

I will start by congratulating you if you feel guilty about something you didn’t do right. It means your conscience and, hopefully spiritual man is alive. A dead man shows no remorse.

But then, such guilt is meant to lead you to repentance and not destruction. The devil has weaponized this virtue and has made it destructive for children of God. 

When we have confessed our sins and resolved to never return to sin, we must strive to grow past the shackles of sin. We must spend more time increasing our spiritual standing rather than going back to reminisce on what Christ Himself has discarded on the cross. He took it away so that we don’t get associated with it. Unfortunately, we return to the garbage, pick it up again, and dress ourselves in it. The time spent bemoaning our sins is the time we should have spent growing our spirit man to become resistant to sin.

• BITTERNESS, HATRED, ENVY, UNFORGIVENESS

These are terrible thieves of joy and peace. Not only do they rob you of your peace and joy, they replace them with filth that destroys only you, not even the person they were directed to.

These destructive emotions eat at your heart, causing you to decay from the insides. 

The next time you want to feel any of these negative emotions towards someone, please find a way to remind yourself that God Himself loves this person. Look out for the good in and for others; soon, your own peace will abound.

There is so much to mention, but whatever they are, when you look inward, you will find out that the burden was needless to begin with. So, free yourself and give everything over to God.