November 24, 2022

Burdens, Battles and Blessings

One Saturday evening as I was starting to prayer I said, Lord, I have burdens, battles, and blessings on my heart tonight. I know that came from the Spirit of God crying out within me to give explanation to what I was feeling on the inside because it came so clear to me at that moment.

Since that time, I not only have prayed with these three things in mind, but I have shared them at church and with other people because I am under the deep conviction that every person, every week if not every day walk through these three things. Often at the same time!

Every person has a burden or burdens. A burden is what is weighing on you or overwhelms you. It could be you are walking through a time of sickness, a financial problem, issues with family or with work, anxiety over the future or, whatever may be stressing you out right now. A burden might also be something you are carrying for someone else. Someone you love is walking through a difficult time and as a result, you heart is heavy for them.

Every person has battles. That struggle, that temptation, the sin that easily besets us the Bible talks about in Hebrews 12. It might be a battle with a type of addiction, an attitude, worry, anger, jealousy, or any number of internal battles in our heart. There are battles we face as Christians in standing for what is right and seeking to live for Jesus in a world that is hostile to the gospel. It might be a struggle in your family, work, church, or community. We all face battles.

Every person also has blessings. Often, this is the one that I forget to focus on. Even in the burdens and the battles, there are blessings. Food on our table, clothes on our back, air in our lungs, someone encouraging you or a special moment with family or friends.

For those of us who are saved, we have a relationship with God through His son Jesus Christ and for those who are lost, you can know God by trusting in Jesus. As the song says, I am blessed, every day that I live I am blessed. God is so good to shower His blessings each moment of every day.

We have blessings every day. “Count your blessings, name them one by one, see what God has done” says the great hymn, a good reminder for me for sure.

The question comes, what do we do with these areas that come into our lives. We do what the Lord was seeking to help me do that Saturday night, bring them all to Him in prayer. In prayer, Hebrews 4:16, we have a great High Priest which is Jesus Christ, “let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

In prayer we trust Jesus for our burdens, He is the burden bearer. He will walk us through what we are walking through by supplying the mercy and grace to help in time of need. In prayer we take our battles to Jesus and lay them at His feet and let Him give the victory that only He can give. In prayer I thank Jesus for every blessing where He has shown mercy and grace in my life daily.

As we come to Thanksgiving and Christmas, may we all pause and give God praise that He is the burden bearer, He is the one who gives me the victory in every battle, and He alone is the one who has blessed me not because I am good but because He is good.

We all have them: burdens, battles, and blessings. I must not let the first two cause me to lose sight of the latter. I am asking God to help me to not fight my battles alone, focus on Him and not my burdens and to not forget all His blessings.

Praying the same for you.

Pastor Michael