Gifts, not burdens

by Maurice Pujol
Published March 9, 2006

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

Even though most of my close fellowship is among evangelical Christians, I occasionally run across a sad remnant of an old religious tradition. It’s a tradition that has misled Christians for centuries about God’s nature and His will. It’s a tradition that leads many to view God as a strict taskmaster who heaps troubles upon us so we can prove ourselves worthy of His love and salvation.

My most recent encounter with this tradition occurred during a prayer service for a friend who was going to have a medical test. Though many at this service prayed for good reports and healing, some thoughts were expressed that hearken back to this false concept of God. Though I firmly believe we should offer our thanks to God in all things, I don’t believe God sends us disease and disorder. God does not burden us to make us unhappy in this life, so we’ll look forward more diligently to the hereafter.

Sure, God does allow some things to happen, but always for a positive purpose. All of God’s efforts are designed to bring us, and those around us, closer to Him. God has to stop some people in their tracks to get their attention, and this often involves allowing some dramatic, sometimes traumatic, event.

For His people, however, He will always turn bad things to good: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

When we pray, we should always pray as to a loving Father, One who would never for a moment do anything to hurt us. We should never thank Him for pain and disease, but rather pray for deliverance from them. We should never thank Him for tragedy and trials, but rather for His strength to weather them and to become stronger through them.

We should always thank Him during these times (because He’s with us), but never for these times. In other words, I shouldn’t seek out illness in order to demonstrate God’s healing power, any more than I should try to sin all I can to demonstrate the power of His grace.

The problem of pain and disease, so closely linked to our mortality, has always troubled mankind. Some religions have addressed this problem by calling for detachment from this world, a spiritual resignation that lessens the effects of illness, loss and disappointments. “No expectations, no disappointments” is one of the catch phrases we hear from those who follow this tradition.

The flip side of this is that it also removes people from the pleasures of living, all the joy and all the good things the Creator has designed for us to have in the here and now.

Jesus presents us with a radically different approach to the problems of this life. If you are beaten down by trials and troubles, Jesus invites you to bring them to Him. If you are burdened by illness or grief, Jesus welcomes you to lay those burdens at His feet.

Jesus, God’s Word made flesh, doesn’t want you to carry these loads. He doesn’t want you to prove how strong you are, how faithful you are, by carrying them the rest of your life. Jesus died on the cross, a free gift of God’s love, so that we could escape sin and its ultimate consequence, death.

The salvation Jesus offers when we repent of our sin and accept Him as Lord and Savior contains so much more than an “escape.” The full meaning of the word “salvation” in the original language calls for wholeness, health and safety, as well as eternal life in the presence of God.

When we pray for the sick, we should ask for nothing less than total healing. When we pray for anyone who is burdened, we should ask for nothing less than total deliverance. In all our prayers, we should remember we can step boldly to God’s throne of endless grace in the name of Jesus, Who lives to make intercession for us on a daily basis.

We should pray to God as we would talk to a loving Father, Who wants nothing but the best for His children. When we are born again, God adopts us into His very family, and we become blood-bought brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. We are not meant to be burdened or beaten by anything life has to offer after that.

Jesus said to lay our burdens down and to take up His yoke – which at first sounds like something bad – but He immediately added that His yoke is easy and His burden light. In other words, Jesus calls for us to exchange our heavy loads for the load He has made light through His death and resurrection.

This means we don’t need to be welcoming pain, disease and trials in order to become better Christians. If we think we need to suffer somehow to make our salvation complete, we’re saying that what Jesus did on the cross wasn’t good enough, that we need to add something to it.

And, as one person once put it, “That’s just not Bible.”

What “is Bible” is this: God loves us and holds us in His very hands. Those who choose to walk with Him, who submit their lives to Him, will walk in all the blessings He promises: Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. . . (Psalm 103:2-3)

You can claim all the life and all the blessings God has promised by stepping out in faith today.

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