Have I ever really felt the “burden of the Lord”? If I have, there will be times when I will be sick and tired of the Lord’s work and wish that I had never heard of His name. Lord, I have felt that way at times. I have sometimes felt ashamed when preaching, not of how I preached but of what. The gospel sometimes has embarrassed me, and I longed to be free from having to care for people and from having to announce a message that begins with human sin.
The Lord’s “burden” is heavy, not as heavy as my sin burden, perhaps, but heavy just the same. Yet the Lord’s “woe” is even heavier. “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel,” said Paul (1 Corinthians 9:16). How could Jesus say, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30, KJV)? A “burden” by definition cannot be light (easy). He was the only Spokesman for God who never complained about the burden. It does me no good to say, “But He was God!” He was man, too, and in becoming man He set aside all the privileges of Deity.
No, I think the answer is that Jesus’ manhood was whole. He never knew deviation or exception. He willed one will with the Father always. But I am plagued with vacillation—one day feeling so spiritual I could give my body to be burned, and the next day resenting the phone call that drew me from my bed in the middle of the night.
My message is a burden because it demands consistency and total dedication from me. It would be intolerable unless He who found His burden so light helped me. But He assures me that though the rivers swell, they will not drown me; and though the fires rage, I will not be consumed (Isaiah 43:2). That is the glory of the disciple of Christ; he is burdened only to fly, and he is put to death only to live.
“I know, O Lord, that a man’s way is not in himself; nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23).
Daily with the King 