Love Bears Burdens

Carry each other’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

How does Paul pack so much into one sentence? How do you carry each other’s burdens? The law of Christ Paul is writing about is from Matthew 22, ³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  In short, love God and love others with a love that can only come from a soul transformed by God.

It’s early in the morning but God has had me awake for a few hours now. It has been a time of prayer that could be described at times as wrestling and at other times as praise. But it’s all been good. I’ve gotten to pray for families in transition. Transition is never easy – selling homes, leaving friends behind and finding new friends and churches. Relationships that are deep are painful to uproot. I love these families and ache for them in this process. My Lord, show me how we can come alongside them and carry their burdens.

Father, strengthen Christians in Kenya, Pakistan and Egypt. They are under great attack. Have mercy on them Lord and protect them. I pray for my friend with dengue fever in Papua. I love this brother and am so encouraged by the way he selflessly loves so many. Yet my heart is grieved for him in his pain. Lord give him relief and heal him.

And there are so many pastors in this local area that are loving their congregations as well as the people of the community. I pray, Father, that you will strengthen them and that they will not grow weary in well doing. Oh my Lord, as we pray for and minister to our neighbors show us how we can love them well and carry their burdens.

These still watches of the night have me praying for my children and the children of my friends and neighbors – that they will have a passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ… just as he has and will continue to passionately pursue them. Father let them be satisfied with nothing less than knowing you well and walking close.

If we are to bear one another’s burdens we have to love. And if we love we will have to carry each other’s burdens. Such love demands relationship and therein is the risk isn’t it? For with relationship can come great joy, something we all long to experience but those same relationships can bring great pain… and nobody wants that! The only way to keep from such pain is to avoid relationship altogether. I pray for those experiencing pain and brokenness in relationships – that you, Father, would bring about reconciliation and healing. Soften hard hearts, open blind eyes, give courage to love again and faith for repentance. Father, you have showed what real love looks like. Love looks like Jesus. It looks like the reality that Jesus is living in us and through us.

Jesus, thank you for carrying our burdens.

Anchored in Grace,
Harrison