A burden is usually a negative thing like a hardship, or an overload, or some kind of `heavy,’ but in God’s Kingdom the concept has another meaning that is surprisingly desirous.
This discussion springs from my first post about the Kingdom Training Grounds, which among other things introduces the concept of yoke. If you have not yet read that post, please do so. Go to the archives to your right and click the October link. It won’t take but a minute and this post will be waiting for you when you get back. Today’s post will advance the concept in a way you likely do not expect. The Anatomy Of A Burden reduces the fear-factor that is often resident in our flesh about yokes. There is something about this concept which when really understood, it makes you run to the Lord to get it, not flee from Him to avoid it.
Jesus said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My Yoke [emphasis mine] upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy [margin reads `kindly, pleasant’] and My load is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). When you really look at what Jesus said, you find there is nothing scary about His yoke. In fact, His yoke is designed to relieve the heavy-laden and weary condition that comes from being at any place besides His yoke.
To get where we are going, let me explain a burden that most of us understands. Think of someone you love very much, or a person you know at work or at school about whom you care deeply, someone who at the moment does not love God. When you pray for that person, I’ll bet you a whole denarius that you do not ask for judgment to rain down on them; instead, you pray fervently that they understand the riches of the free gift. You might even weep for them occasionally while you pray. I bet you also shudder at the thought of what will happen to them if they continue to refuse God. So you pray again for their enlightenment, that they might see the goodness of the Lord and yearn for Him. Nothing would thrill you more than to watch them rejoicing over the miracle of their salvation while they jump up and down in anticipation about it (you know, like the world does about a ball going through a hoop).
That is how God feels about each of the wicked. I Timothy 2:4 says, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth . . .” The thought of what awaits the unrepentant pangs God even more than your friend does you. God is deep and passionate in His love which is incredibly strong in ways we do not understand. The grief He feels over the destruction of the wicked, even the concern He has over the destruction of animals (Jonah 4:11) is far more intense than we realize. The next time you have a pang about somebody you care about, remember God experiences that and much more for everyone on earth. He is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (I Peter 3:9).
Consequently when we pray we are not “wrestling with God” to convince Him about a lost soul; we are actually communing with Him (or shall we say, kindredly commiserating with Him) about something that is important to both of you.
This next part is very important. When we are done praying our hearts to God about the person we care about, our burden for them has probably increased because of what God was doing in us while we were interceding. God was pouring out His love in our hearts (that unique kind of intense love that only He has) while we were on our knees. In essence we were “learning from Him” (to put it in Jesus’ words) while we were spending time with Him in prayer. Our hearts were becoming burdened some more in the way that His is. We were becoming increasingly passionate about somebody’s faith because we were taking on (in small increments) more of how God feels about them. Though we may not be aware of it, we were also being burdened even more for all the lost while we were on our knees.
This idea is called “taking His yoke upon us” (again, to put it in terms that Jesus uses). I call it a yoke burden. God’s desire is that we become increasingly burdened with His godly love until we reach the point where we are willing to lay down our lives for that person(s). The apostle Paul, for example, became so burdened for the lost house of Israel that he said he had “great sorrow and unceasing grief in his heart for them [the Israelites]” (Romans 9:2). After that, he says the burden became so strong that he was willing to be “accursed, separated from Christ, for the sake of my brethren . . .” (Romans 9:3). Now that’s a yoke burden! It wasn’t something Paul cooked up in himself. That was something that God poured into His heart by the very One Who did the same thing. We later find out how that yoke burden was created in Paul’s heart. In Romans 10:1 he says, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”
It is staggering to meditate on the enormity of God’s burden for the lost everywhere in the world. The startling truth is there are countless other burdens just like that one which are also resident in God’s heart, burdens He would love to unleash on us. Sometimes all it takes is for us to get heavy laden enough (from not being in His yoke) that we are finally driven to Him in desperation. Then we can discover and nestle into His “kindly and pleasant” yoke that comes from His “gentle and humble heart.”
Let me put this another way: all it takes for yoke burdens to occur is for us to spend real time with God, but it has to be enough time. If we will just step away from our heavy ladenness long enough to come to Him, He will pour out His love in our hearts while we do it. Amazingly, mixed with His love are those other burdens that He has for us that we don’t know about yet, burdens He wants us to enjoy with Him, such as the life’s work He has chosen for us. The usual method is for us to make up our minds about what kind of career we want and then spend years investing toward that end. God, on the other hand, has rapturous plans for us (which also require sacrifice, just like a true career does) that we never knew about because we did not spend enough time with Him to find out what they were!
Consider this verse. “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:?). Does that mean if we spend time with God He will then give us whatever we want? Absolutely not! And to be honest, I am thrilled He doesn’t do that, because He does something better, something higher. If we set our hearts on spending quality time with Him and if we truly learn how to delight ourselves in the Lord (that is, learn how to make Him our delight), if we can passionately seek that as intensely as we would seek a college education, or the almighty dollar, or excelling at a sport, or becoming esteemed before men, or studying prophecy, or doctrines, or the end times; if we will channel that kind of passion into the art of delighting ourselves in the Lord, Psalm 37:4 says something extraordinary will happen. While we are delighting in Him, He will take our human heart out of us and rewire it. God will fix the problem in our heart and our heart will work differently. Instead of pumping with passion for things from our human perspective, it will burn for things from God’s point of view. The burdens that are going on in His heart will begin to happen in ours because God has reinserted the rewired one back into us. Our passions, our intentions, and our burdens will become different. Our heart will beat with HIS burdens, His desires, and His passions more than ever before.
Now re-read Psalm 37:4 with this understanding and see how it hits you. “Delight yourselves in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” So many folks read that verse self-centeredly, but God intended it God-centeredly. The reason we do not see that verse the way God intended is the very reason why we need to have our hearts rewired in the first place. There is only one way out of that trap! Spend enough time with God until He becomes our delight. He is the only One Who can make the kinds of changes that have to be made there. Education won’t do it and finding “your career” won’t do it.
So why not try it? Instead asking God to do something for you, why not delight yourself in Him with worship and praise and prayer long enough to let Him begin to lay on your heart His burden for things, anything and everything He has in mind. Don’t worry about how you pray, just learn how to worship and delight yourself in Him. Enjoy the fun in the relationship the way it was intended to be enjoyed. I’m not talking about going out into the wilderness and fasting three weekends in a row. The way to begin is by setting aside at least some time alone with Him at home (in a closet if you have to). Maybe you can start by singing the songs that come to mind in the morning. If songs don’t come to mind that early for you, ask that whatever God has on His heart at that moment to begin gurgling in your heart during the first hour you are awake every day; you know, while you are putting on your socks, or washing your hands, or stumbling into the bathroom. If you keep requesting that kind of thing like the persistent petitioner of the unrighteous judge did in Luke 11:5-8, one day you will find a song rolling up your heart when you first wake up. Oh wait, you say that has already happened? Then did you take the time to follow that lead? If you will do that, even more incredible things will follow.
Also try to get with God at some other time during the day or evening if you possibly can. When I worked full time at City Hall (in the 1970’s) I purposed to get more time with God during some of my lunch breaks (not all). Amazingly, I found some fascinating places where I could be alone with God in that building. I realize I discovered them in pre-homeland security days, but I found that on the top floor a stairway kept going higher to another place. I followed the mysterious stairway and discovered it led to a door to a mechanical room. So I just sat down on the top dusty step (which was obviously not used much) in front of a mechanical room door with my Bible in my lap. I have to admit the first time somebody bolted out of the top floor into the stair well directly underneath me, my heart almost jumped out of my chest. They couldn’t see me because they hurried down the stairs, which in their minds was the only way they could go. They had no idea I was “up there.” After a while I also found that the occasional foot falls on the distant floors below was like living next to an airport. After a while I never heard them. Besides, most folks used the elevators anyway.
One day a maintenance man came up the stairs and found me, but when he saw a Bible lying in my lap he seemed almost apologetic that he had disturbed me. I explained that I worked in Traffic Engineering and was on my lunch break. Then I asked him if I needed to move. He assured me I was fine and that he would be out of my way soon! I often supplemented my early time with God by spending my lunch break with God in other places I discovered in City Hall, especially on days when it seemed like His nearness had been exceptionally strong earlier that morning.
Whatever level of seeking God you find yourself operating in at the moment, please consider ways you might increase it with Him. He wants to pour out the kinds of things into your heart that He has in mind for you, things that He has been living with alone without you for quite some time. You will be surprised when the burden comes upon you, and you will know exactly what I mean when it happens. It might take some time to prime your pump (depending on how much flesh God has to burn through in you) and God might end up asking you to find other creative ways to seek Him, but the whole process is a journey that is worth far much more than the price of the search.
