Have you ever had a time in your life where it felt like you were carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders? Recently I experienced a time like this. I felt like I was Atlas from Greek mythology. He’s the man who you always see literally carrying the world on his back. Every day between Thanksgiving and our Christmas vacation seemed to add another burden or worry. The scriptures are clear — the Lord doesn’t want us to carry burdens ourselves.
He wants us to help each other…
Mosiah 18:8, “as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called His people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light.”
And He wants us to give them to Him…
Psalms 55:22, “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”
Matthew 11:28, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Early on, when I started to feel weighed down, I prayed and asked the Lord to carry the burdens for me. I broke my heart before Him, saying that I knew I couldn’t do it on my own and didn’t want to. I wanted His help more than anything. By the time the week before Christmas came, I was physically and mentally exhausted. Little did I know that the heaviest weight was yet to come that week. I got through it but felt like I had just ended a triathlon that I didn’t really train for, dragging myself across the finish line. I was thankful that God got me through and was looking forward to vacation.
As I was getting the rental car at the Pittsburgh airport, I received a startling text message that was in relation to that really large issue from earlier in the week. As I related it to my wife, I realized how much the Lord had really carried me through. I knew that He never left me and was so thankful for His strength and protection. It reminded me of the poem, “Footprints” by Mary Stevenson and it’s ending. The poem says that when there was only one set of footprints in the sand, they were actually the Lord’s, as He carried the dreamer through the most trying times. I gave it to Him, and He carried me through. Praise God!
Have you ever felt this way? Post a comment telling about a time when the Lord helped you shoulder the weight of the world.
“Footprints in the Sand” by Mary Stevenson
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
“Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You’d walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”
He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you.”
This article has undergone ministry review and approval.
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”
James 1:12 KJV
It was over a year ago when I felt like I was in a bad situation at work. I did not know how I was going to get through it. Many times I would cry to the Lord about it. One day, I had gone into my basement which has many containers for storage and my second refrigerator. There were two huge containers that had held a Christmas tree that I had been trying to get rid of. My sister had said she wanted it so there was a big space against the wall where those containers had been. Every time I went into my refrigerator or freezer, I would look at that big bare space. I don’t know if I was looking for spiders or what but it never failed that it would draw my attention. That day I was going into my freezer to retrieve something and lamenting to the Lord about my situation and asking for guidance. Like clockwork, I looked to that empty space and I saw a picture lying sideways against the wall. It wasn’t a big picture but I was in shock! Just about all my pictures that were not on a wall were in a box at a storage unit. I kept asking myself how in the world could that have gotten there? I did not move for a while as I tried to comprehend where it came from. I finally moved over to the picture and when I realized what the picture was, I began to cry. It was a picture I had purchased from Home Interiors a long time ago. It was a picture of a sandy beach by a body of water and it was titled, “The Footprints of God.” The poem was scrolled all over the picture. The Lord helped me through a terrible experience and continues to always be by my side. I can never, ever thank Him enough.