The God who bears our burdens


I offer a refreshing verse that I came across this morning in my devotions...

We often think of God as looking down on us with some a kind of evaluative detachment. He gives us a challenging life to live, and he wants to see how we will do. If God is like that, he is more difficult to love. The good news is, he's not like that.

Here is the way God really is. From Psalm 68:19 -- "Praise to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens." This verse portrays God not as detached from us but as attached to us. Whether he approves or disapproves of everything we do, he is first of all compassionate. He doesn't simply look and see that we have burdens, he helps carry them. Our God is involved. It turns out God is easy to love after all.

I think of a verse that has always stood out to me as a compelling picture of Christian community: "Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). Why do we bear one another's burdens? Because God bears our burdens. Being compassionate by bearing others' burdens is another way we imitate God.

It is worth saying -- God, you are worthy of our love! It is worth asking -- whose burdens should I help carry today?

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