Bear!

Bear!

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2 KJV

What is a burden: Google says it is 'a load, typically a heavy one'. It means that a man with a burden knows he has something that weighs him down. It is first personal, but then you read today's extract and you get the impression that God wants that personal burden to become a shared concern. How does this work? Essentially, it means that I must recognise the fact that just as another person has his/her burden, so do I. God has not created one human being as being more special than another, but He has created each person as a special one, with peculiar experiences and paths. As I journey, some things become expedient and important, and may become burdens that I need help with. That's where you come in. 

This shared experience means that there is no room for backbiting or malice or rumour mongering. It does not allow me think that the other person's burden isn't as important as mine. It does not allow me pick and choose what kind of burdens I can help with, as long as God gives grace. Pick your targets carefully, but let the grace of God flow in and through you to be a blessing to other people. It leaves no room for discrimination or selective courses in bearing burdens: I am to do it for all who need help, irrespective of colour, race, creed, disposition or religion.  

We all go through stuff; the fall of man guarantees that we will need help to navigate the world of sin and rebellion that resulted from Adam's disobedience. That's why God places fellow men around me so that I can be helped. He places mortal, broken men like myself beside me, so I can know and understand that it is by helping each other that God is glorified. It leaves no room for mockery or any feeling of superiority. Just as the person I am helping has burdens, so do I. I am not sent to another as being above reproach, but as someone saved by grace and helped by God.

Sure you know now from the above what the law of Christ is: something He also submitted to and lived by: that is the law of love. His life is a visible expression of that love. At the time He showed me love, I also didn't deserve it. In fact, I was long gone in sin but His love just wouldn't let go. He bore my own burden, maybe the most important one, and then He asks me to extend the same grace to other people. If I know just how much I have been helped, I won't struggle with helping other people. If I know what the grace of God can do in a person's life, I will not hesitate to be a channel and outflow for that grace.

I ask God for help so that my life becomes a blessing to people around me. What's it going be for you too? Are you content with daily selfish living, or do you really want to be a blessing in this generation? Help is available, only in and through Christ. He is the embodiment and expression of grace and help, and in Him, all that I need to make impact and be a blessing are provided in abundance. Get Him into your life, and you will be a blessing this world hasn't seen yet. His time of favour is here.