Psalms 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Over twenty years ago, not long after I came to faith in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) the Lord began putting it in my heart to create a website where believers could be informed about world, national and Christian news — so that they could more effectively pray. I could not have imagined what Worthy News has become. Back then, I knew nothing about designing websites. I started with a Pentium 1 … a tiny hard drive by today’s standards — just a few gigs. Every few minutes the overload brought it to the point where it would crash. Incredibly frustrating! I finally figured out that in order to fix the problem, I had to dump all the unused programs and unnecessary information. Soon afterward it functioned again, and I learned something…
The responsibilities of life and ministry can become like that overloaded Pentium 1. Take me for example: whose family is growing and that needs, whose online ministry needs regular oversight, traveling all across the world, all in the context of the stress and pressures of life … well, at one point the overload felt a bit like my original computer… on the verge of crashing!
What to do? Continue carrying more burdens than I can bear, processing more information than I need? No. I’ve had to retreat, and I needed to re-evaluate…what is the Lord giving me and what have I taken upon myself? And which burdens am I not casting upon Him?
Allowing ourselves to nearly crash is not spiritual. There will be times when life’s pressures seem unbearable, but we can be prepared for those times if we practice a regular discipline of evaluating our priorities in normal daily life, off-loading unnecessary tasks, and casting the important things onto the Lord, in prayer. If we do so, it may save us from “crashing” in the long run!! Don’t crash … take a long-deserved rest and enjoy your weekend, and rest in His finished work! Shabbat Shalom!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Epraphras is not a name you hear much of. He was a member of the church in Colosse, and obviously a dear saint in the Lord. We know that he suffered imprisonment with Paul at one time. But the thing that really impresses me about this saint is what Paul wrote about him– he always wrestled in prayer!
Missionaries Dick and Margaret Hillis found themselves caught in China during the Japanese invasion. The couple lived with their two children in the inland town of Shenkiu. The village was tense with fear, for every day brought terrifying reports of the Japanese advance. At the worst possible time, Dick developed appendicitis, and he knew his life depended on making the long journey to the hospital. On January 15, 1941, with deep foreboding, Margaret watched him leave.
As Joshua led the children of Israel into the promised land it seemed that God had given them an impossible assignment -- to conquer a foreign and hostile land with fortified cities and armies greater than their own. They had to go forth only on the basis of God's promise. They had to walk by faith and not by sight!
Over the weekend, the ministry lost a dear brother who suddenly died of a heart attack. In times of mourning, the realization dawned (once again) that this life is utterly fleeting ... a vapor in the wind ... and these frail human bodies in which we dwell are mortal dust. We are living in the land of the dead and dying, and only those of us who truly know and are known by the Messiah, upon our death, will enter the land of the truly living!
Counselors, encouragers, and people who offer care to others often encounter those whose past failures threaten to define them and hinder their development, healing, and sanctification. Our enemy capitalizes on our failures and regrets, pressing home the current influence of what we could have, would have, or should have done, if only we were wiser, more courageous, honest, or godly.
During World War II, a US marine was separated from his unit on a Pacific Island. The fighting had been intense, and in the smoke and the crossfire he had lost touch with his comrades. Alone in the jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming in his direction. Scrambling for cover, he found his way up a high ridge to several small caves in the rock. Quickly he crawled inside one of the caves.
The apostle John quotes Isaiah 53:1, saying to whom has the z’roah [arm] of the Lord been revealed? It’s a question that God answers throughout the rest of Isaiah 53, describing in detail the life of Yeshua (Jesus) and the ultimate price He would pay for the sins of the world.