By Mark Maher
Is it possible that our burdens can become blessings and that our blessings can later become burdens?
The birth of Jesus was such a miracle and yet it didn’t come without significant burdens for Mary and Joseph. Twice, Luke indicated that Mary “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19,51) She faithfully walked through each and every burden to protect the blessing.
Moses would deliver the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery, which was such a blessing, but it didn’t come without significant burdens. Strong faith and love will shatter each and every fear. You will walk through every trial and every obstacle to protect the call that God has placed on your life.
So, oftentimes the place of your greatest burden is also the place of tremendous blessings. And with each blessing, it’s often encased with tremendous burdens, stress, fear, anxiety, etc. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” (Isaiah 43:2) No one is immune from trials and challenges, because every blessing is laced with adversity.
In order to find tremendous love, you’ll have to risk tremendous potential for loss. The weeds and the tares both grow together. To get the best grapes, they’ll have to be crushed. It’s in the crushing that you get the best out of the grapes and sweet wine is produced. It’s the hard that makes it great. Training and finishing the marathon is euphoric because the last one standing is always the ones who put in the most effort. You don’t surrender easily when you know how much effort you have put into the process.
Attrition will happen on any sports team and in any professional endeavor but the ones that remain standing are the ones who fell in love with process, delayed gratification; the slow fire that they maintained burning every step of the way; so why would they quit now?
The Bible says God is a “consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:29) He is going to shake you to figure out what’s unshaken. (Hebrews 12:27-28) The refiner is shaping you for what’s to come. Ten years from now, you will not be the same person. The faith will be fortified and the testimony will be resolute, and you’ll be able to encourage others in their faith and provide comfort in their struggles. Sometimes the burdens let you know how much you can endure.
God is not afraid of tough love to make us into His image, molding, and shaping our character just like He did with Peter and Paul, and most of the Bible characters. “For those God foreknew He also predestined-to be conformed to the image of His Son.” (Romans 8:29)
Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us of God’s plan for us; “plans to prosper and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.” This is where we hang our hope. We want to be there for our kids and our grandkids. The goal is to be a rock, a firm foundation, unshaken by the non-essential. Learning to grow each and every day marinating in God‘s Word, until it becomes second nature, implanted in the heart and soul and mind, able to provide wise counsel and discernment through the lens of love and faith. “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Wayne Dyer
“Those blessings will become burdens if you let fear control you and convince you that something terrible is about to happen, that the relationship will fail, or you won’t succeed at work. Fear does that because it’s there to destroy, ruin, take away peace, and disrupt our relationship with God.” Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
Jesus bore the greatest burden, but obviously it birthed the greatest blessing for all Christians. His resurrection provided us with eternal life and freedom from sin. Let us “fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)
Christ encourages us to “flip the bag” or to take the talents that are given to us and multiply them. He wants to see us “work the blessings” that He has given us in our life with a strong attitude of gratefulness. The blessings only become a burden when we lose our gratefulness. The servant who buried his talents was considered “wicked and lazy” (Matthew 25:26) because he wanted the blessing with no burdens. He took the blessing and buried it in the ground and walked away. We are to value Christ and others so much that the burdens don’t matter. We diminish the burdens because we’re so focused on the giver, Christ.
