HEAVY SUITCASES

Psalm 68:19 AMPC Blessed be the Lord, Who bears our burdens and carries us day by day, even the God Who is our salvation! Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

If you’ve ever had to carry a suitcase up a flight of steps at the railway station, and then down again the other side to reach the other platform, you’ll know how heavy it can be and you’re glad to put it down!

In the same way we all carry suitcases through life jammed with burdens we were never designed to carry. I wonder what your suitcase is full of? Is it heavy with memories that burden you down, maybe it is full of regrets or hurts or unforgiveness? Maybe it’s full of family troubles or health problems, or how to pay the bills?

Whatever is in it, God wants to remind us He is our burden bearer. Are we trying to carry, or stubbornly holding on to what we need to let go of? Why not release the handle of your suitcase to Him and let Him have the full weight of it?😊

Our verse says He carries us day by day. It never says He carries us every now and again when He feels like it or when He sees we can’t manage. No, He carries us every single day but are we allowing Him to take the weight? If not, it’s like getting on the train but still carrying the suitcase!

When we worry and are anxious all the time it lets us see we’re not really trusting God to sort things out, that we’re still trying to be God in our own lives. We seem to think He’s not on the job so we feel we have to be! How silly can we be? As though worrying can change anything anyway!

1 Peter 5:7 AMPC Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. Did you notice the ‘all’ bit? Sometimes we do give God the cares but after a few minutes we grab the handle of the suitcase back again! 

It’s tempting to say we can’t help it, but that’s not true or God would be unjust to tell us to do it! God says to ask the Holy Spirit to help us with everything, so next time we catch ourselves carrying the heavy suitcase let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us let go and allow Him to carry it instead.😊 Amen.

Photo by Kin Wai Cheung on Unsplash

YOUR HEART’S DESIRE

Psalm 20:4-5 NLT May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory and raise a victory banner in the name of our God.
May the Lord answer all your prayers.

When someone says something to us twice we know they’re trying to get our attention and we should be listening!😊 Well in the past few days I have been given Psalm 20 twice and I had the same thought, “I need to listen!” So what is God saying to us because His word is for all of us, not just for the odd one or two! 

We all have heart’s desires, things we are praying for, whether it’s for relations to be saved, health issues, family situations to be turned around or maybe as in our case for moving house, but they are all the desires of our hearts and God knows every one of them.😊

It’s interesting the psalmist prays that God won’t just give them their heart’s desire, but will also make all their plans succeed. That implies we need to have some specific plans in place before God can bring them about! Are they His plans or our plans? God is not vague, in fact when He gave Moses the design plans for the tabernacle they were incredibly specific.

We know we’re called to be imitators of God so what are our specific plans and desires? Have we written them down like it says to do in Habakkuk 2:2-3(NKJV), so we know exactly what we’re believing for, what our heart’s desire is? 

If we’re sick, our heart’s desire will be for total restoration, not a half hearted job. We need to ‘see’ ourselves well, with maybe a photo of us when we were healthy so we know what we’re aiming for. “Thank You Lord, You want me whole and well and Your word says by Jesus wounds I was healed. Thank You it’s manifesting moment by moment, even when I can’t see or feel it yet.”😊

If we are dealing with family upsets, we need a picture in our head of them all getting on well, not just ‘O God, help my family”. I believe the Lord wants us to be specific, to speak positive words over them.“Thank You Lord You are bringing restoration and reconciliation to the family. Thank You Lord You are healing the hurts and building bridges. You’re bringing the desires of my heart.” 

When we do that we’re showing God our faith, that we’re trusting Him to fulfil His promises and give us the desires of our hearts knowing He wants us to prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers. Thank You Lord. Amen.😊

Photo by Mohamed Marey on Unsplash