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LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”  Galatians 6:2

My heart is burdened for people who are hurting and need encouragement.  The failures have piled up in a heap so large it blocks the view of the future. Hope has been erased. 

This may describe you today, and you’re wondering if anyone cares. Will someone please say something encouraging?

Recently I found something that was written by a man to a friend who was in need of encouragement. I share it with you because it was just what that person needed.  Maybe it will help you also.

“I thought I would write to try to provide more encouragement and let you know that I am praying specially for you tonight and tomorrow to be filled with the Spirit and full of encouragement.  I know you are weighed down by the things we discussed tonight.  You may not know what to pray, but the Spirit is interceding on your behalf and the Lord will give you strength.  Take comfort in the words of Paul from 2 Corinthians 4 which says, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”  In our weakness, God’s glory shines through. 

Spurgeon put it like this, “Our infirmities become the black velvet on which the diamond of God’s love glitters all the more brightly. Thank God I can suffer, thank God I can be made the object of shame and contempt; for, in this way, God shall be glorified.”  

We all fail and have weaknesses which cause us to fall short of God, but praise be to God that He has Providentially ordained for our failings to still bring Him glory and He still uses us in spite of our shortcomings/humanness.  Jesus, too, was misunderstood and rejected by many, and we as disciples are not greater than our master, so we can patiently endure criticism knowing our Lord endured worse and that when rightly criticized, He paid our wages already.  

Finish your race strong brother.  Keep looking to Christ.  We, as fellow runners of the race, will try to be there to keep pointing you to Christ and help you along the way (hopefully in the same way Hopeful was there to remind Christian of the truth when they were captured by the Giant Despair).  Love you dearly and praying for you.”

That’s what bearing another person’s burdens looks like. Love is the fulfilling of the law of Christ.

Pastor John