Your world has been turned upside down. What do you do?
It is hard to think straight when you are suspended upside down from a branch that could break at any time. Do you feel like you are sitting precariously close to that creek that looks more like a raging river? That overwhelming flood of emotions threaten to take you down. You feel trapped. What do you do? More importantly, what can you do?
The song – “Take your burdens to the Lord and leave it there” is a hymn composed in 1916 by the African-American Methodist minister Charles A. Tindley. Take note of the refrain:
“Leave it there, leave it there,
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.
If you trust and never doubt, He will surely bring you out.
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.”
No matter what situation assails you, God understands and when you take your burden to the Lord in prayer, He alone will see you through. It sounds so simple – almost childlike. But, that is the truth of it! We have the assurance from God’s word that if we trust and never doubt, God will work it out and bring us safely through, on the other side.
In Psalm 23:4, we get this assurance: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me”
Psalm 37:5 says, “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.”
Isaiah 26:3-4 says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.”
The Lord is our rock and our strong tower when the storms of life threaten to take us under. Isaiah 12:2 says, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
So, what do you do when you are afraid? Psalm 56:3-4 says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?”
Why do we go to God for help?
We are fallible and cannot fix everything that happens in our lives. We need to let go of that burden we are carrying and take it to the Lord in prayer because He has promised to be there to help us.
Psalm 28:7 says, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”
Don’t hesitate, just do it!◊
Linda Pearl
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