This morning as I was walking and talking with the Lord I pondered how the mind works. In my mind’s eye I saw one who was utterly exhausted in their mind. The wheels and the machinations of the heart were in constant motion with worrying and anxiety and stress. It seemed to be like the slaves of old who were attached to grind stones in the flour mills of their enemies. Where all day long they would walk in a circle pushing a beam which would in turn move cogs and pulleys and thus move the enormous mill stones and grind the wheat into flour. Each pulley, each cog representing stress and anxiety and worry. The slave himself generating his own anxiety and worry by virtue of being attached to the beam and compelled to push in a never-ending servitude.

Then I saw the same flour mill, only this time it was beside a river and a wheel had been set. The water turned the wheel and the wheel powered the cogs and the pulleys and this in turn caused the great mill stone to turn without any human effort. In each case flour was produced, yet in one case there was a slave and in the other case there was no need for slavery.

Now many may say that anxiety and worry and stress and fear is caused by the enemy or our circumstances, yet Jesus commands us to be “anxious for nothing.” Why would the Lord command us to do something that was not in our power to do? In fact He has commanded us to do something that is very much within our grasp, He has commanded us to choose. The Lord has called His children to freedom. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the Holy place where the most high dwells (Psalm 46:4) To dwell beside the river of God is to be nourished by God Himself. Those who have the river of God flowing through them, those to whom God pours into them living waters, it is those who are like evergreen trees who continually produce fruit in season and out of season. They are like ever green trees in the garden of the Lord and they walk in a peace that surpasses understanding.

Now brothers and sisters. Can you say you are like an evergreen tree set by the river of God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to run and not grow weary? Or perhaps you have allowed yourself to become attached to the beam and have become enslaved to the grind of this world? God knows how to feed His children, God has called His children to freedom. He has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of love and of power and of a sound mind. Today He is calling you to peace.

It is better to be judged than to boast. The flesh is never louder than when it seeks to justify itself.

As I walked this morning, the song that was on my heart was ” I Am holing on to you.” The line from the chorus is ” I am hold0f0ing onto you, in the middle of the storm, I am holding on to you.” It is a beautiful sentiment and one I have felt deeply so many times in my life. Many times, I have hung onto Jesus with everything that was in me. As I continued to walk, I realised that just as many times I had no strength to even hang on. I felt the Spirit say to me ” just add an ” is,” to the chorus. Now the line reads ” I Am is holding on to you, in the middle of the storm, I Am’s holding on to you.” Maybe today you need to be reminded that when you have no strength to carry on, He will carry you.

Many saints I know ” pray,” as though they are not talking to God. They lecture Him, they teach Him, they use prayer to teach others, they do all these things but the one thing they are not doing is talking to God, at best they are talking to themselves. If you do not believe that you are talking to God, then you are not. Your own unbelief has become your ceiling.

Gal_6:5 For every man shall bear his own burden.

We see here in the Scripture that every man shall bear his own burden. This seems to contradict verse 2 of that same chapter where we are exhorted to ” bear you one another’s burdens.” Now we know that in this world we shall have trials and testings and so on. No one walks this earth untouched by its brokenness and sin. Some , it seems, have easier lives than others, some seem to have trials beyond measure, yet the one thing that is sure is that we all have burdens of one degree or another. Certainly we are called to love one another and to reach out to those who are going through trials. We are to love and support them in any way that we can or that we are led. Yet as we all know, there are certain things in our lives that we simply have to endure, to bear, they are uniquely our burdens and no one can help us but the Lord.

How we deal with such burdens, whatever they are, certainly determines how we walk this earth. And how we deal with such burdens also determines how heavy the burden is. Two different people can have a very similar burden. To one it is such a heavy load that it pulls them down, to the other it encourages them to go deeper into the Father’s heart and they become stronger and the burden becomes lighter. In the previous chapter of Galatians we are reminded of what the fruits of the Spirit are. Can I assure you that how we react to our burdens will be measured by the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Now the fruits of the Spirit are these…..love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,goodness, faith, meekness and self-control. As you carry your burden are you loving? Do you have joy? What about peace? Are you patient with others? Would people consider you gentle and good? Do you trust the Lord? When you are provoked by others, do you respond in kind or do you exercise self-control? You see, our burdens are our teachers. Are you teachable? Our burdens shape us, do you allow yourself to be shaped?

When the sculptor starts he starts with a large heavy block of stone. Each blow from the chisel not only shapes the stone, it also lightens it. If the stone could resist the sculptor and refuse to be shaped, it would remain merely a shapeless heavy block of stone. Do you resist the hammer’s blow? Have you been reacting correctly to the burden that you have been called to carry? Does it seem to you unbearable and heavy? Can I encourage you today to go deeper into the Father’s heart today? You know this burden is something that is not going to go away. It has to be dealt with and no one on this earth can help you with it. Jesus says “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Mat 11:28-30)

You see brothers and sisters, the burden is not removed but it can be made lighter. It is made lighter in Him. And as we come closer to Jesus, the very thing that could destroy us if allowed, begins to shape us and teach us and produce fruit in us. I grow up in a city, I could not tell you one tree from another, but I know what an apple looks like. The fruit identifies the tree to those who do not know. What fruit do you bear this day as you bear your burden? How heavy is your burden? The weight is determined by our proximity to God. Can I encourage you to today, draw closer to God and you will produce much fruit and your burden shall be light.

Forgive us Lord in this land for our willful disobedience to your word. We are not ignorant in this land, we are rebellious. We ask for spiritual awakening yet we have no desire to do justice. We ask for mercy yet we show none. We cry to the heavens and complain about the flood of evil, yet we do not repent that we ourselves unlocked the flood gates for our own wicked gain. We cry out to you for unity of thought while we remain behind the walls that we ourselves built for our own glory. Lord, tear down the walls that your people have erected to separate themselves from each other and build a name for themselves.

Lord forgive our pride that deafens us to the cries of the laborer in the field. Can it be Lord that you would hear us when we refuse to hear them? We jealously guard this land that you made available. We reject the tired, the poor, the huddled masses, we the oppressed have become the oppressors and it causes us no shame. You say to us ” I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins, you afflict the just, you take a bribe and you turn aside the poor in the gate from their right,” and Lord we do it all with pride and are justified in our own sight, forgive us Lord and heal our land.

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