HOW TO UNBURDEN

Pr. James Victor Lubwama

Psalm 55:22 (NKJV)

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved”

In this world we have many burdens which bring about worry or grief that grows and overshadows our faith and hope. A burden may either be an oppressive or worrisome fixation spiritually upon your heart or a heavy load carried physically on your shoulders or head. It is something that is very heavy and brings about hardship. Burdens hinder a stable walk in salvation because of the weight they cast upon your heart and mind. And so anyone with a burden cannot walk steadily and in case one does so, he or she is slowed down by the bulkiness of the load; you cannot even hold a steady conversation when you are spiritually, emotionally or psychologically burdened.

Burdens - Spiritual & Physical

A burden is birthed when one encounters a problematic phase in life: Whenever you get problems or hardships, there is pain that is birthed; the pain may not be felt physically, but it permeates your spirit, and thus you may physically begin to lose weight because a burden drains life out of you.   

There are physical burdens in our day to day lives that can be put off but there are also spiritual burdens that come as a result of the problems you are experiencing. Every difficult situation you go through leaves behind a deposit in your spirit. When we are burdened, we start running here and there, to anyone and everyone looking for someone to unburden us and when no one can, we eventually become disappointed in the process. But Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-29 (AMPC) that; 
“Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.”

People are consumed by burdens because they do not gracefully surrender them to the Lord; even when we pray to God to take away a burden, we do so with partitioned faith – one eye looks unto Jesus and the other one looks at your sibling to come to your rescue. Whenever you surrender to God your burden, you have got to trust Him and believe that He will take it away. 

The burden loaded unto your heart will give birth to worry which will bear fruits of fear and panic. So most times instead of praying to the Lord of Salvation, we end up panicking and as a result make wrong choices. But if we prayed as much as we worried, we would have nothing at all to worry about. The bible says in Philippians 4:6 (NKJV) that;
”Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” 
The best decision you should make during a problematic burdensome moment is to choose to pray.

How do we Unburden?

The psalmist above is telling us to “cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you”. The key word in the second part is - sustain which means to strengthen or support mentally or physically, or to give relief or support. So when the Lord talks about sustaining you, it means enabling you to endure the burden by giving you grace and strength (2 Cor 12:8-9) and then later coming to your rescue to completely remove the burden. God wants the weary and heavy-laden to surrender to Him so that He can give them rest. He does not want you to leave His presence with your burden. 

Everything we have whether family, houses or jobs is by of the grace of God. Because He is the Lord of your life, He will not permit that new level you have reached to fall into the hands of your enemy. This means that God is going to fight for you at every level you ascend to so that you are not shaken or displaced. Remember for every new level we ascend to, we encounter a new devil but God won’t permit the devil’s tactics to prevail upon you (Isaiah 43:2). In Christ we grow and also move from glory to glory. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (GNT) that; 
“All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory”

In order for God to do this He requires you to cast all your burdens at His feet through prayer. We should always call upon God because He sees it all but He cannot intervene in your situation until He is called upon. The bible says in Psalm 115:16 (NLT) that; "the heavens belong to the Lord, but he has given the earth to all humanity.”  

God gave His children to reign on earth and have dominion, so He sees all that goes on in our lives and even knows our burdens, problems and challenges but He can only get involved if we acknowledge that we do need Him to intervene; and when He has been called upon, only then can He come to unburden you. When we are burdened, we have two choices - to either run up and down for help or call upon the Lord to unburden us. The choice we make determines the results (Deuteronomy 30:19). 

Some Christians do not bother to call upon the Lord in prayer because they assume that God can see and knows what they are going through. Indeed He can see but He only helps those who call upon Him. Romans 10:13 (NIV) says; 
“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”

We should therefore learn to pray because prayer is the mode of communication to our Creator. A person who doesn’t want to pray is not yet aware of the magnitude of their problems and impact of their burden. You need to pray to God and cast all your afflictions, worries, problems, and impossibilities unto Him because; “the things that are impossible with people are possible with God” - Luke 18:27

God is on Your Side

Challenges and problems my come but God will not allow the righteous to be moved. Shift your focus and look not unto the storm but to the Lord because if your focus is on the burden and not on God, you will drown just like Peter did (Mathew 14:28-30). Whatever the situation, you will not be moved if you fix your eyes on Jesus because if God is for you, no burden can prevail. Romans 8:31 (AMP) that; “
What then shall we say to all these things? if God is for us, who can be successful against us?”

For whatever you are able to do, you should thank God for His mercy, but for that which you are unable to do on your own, you should call upon Him. When you surrender to God, but feel like your deliverance has delayed, be assured that God will bring it to a standstill until you attain victory. God has done this before and can do it again if you believe. For instance on the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua commanded the sun to stand still. Joshua 10:12-14 (NLT) says:

“On the day the LORD gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, Joshua prayed to the LORD infront of all the people of Israel. He said, “Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon.” 13 So the sun stood still and the moon stayed in place until the nation of Israel had defeated its enemies. Is this event not recorded in The Book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the middle of the sky, and it did not set as on a normal day. 14 There has never been a day like this one before or since, when the Lord answered such a prayer. Surely the Lord fought for Israel that day!”

Lets consider Daniel's situation to show that God can pause a situation until the time of your deliverance. When Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den, God shut the lion’s mouth (Daniel 6:22). God may permit some problems to come your way but can suspend their burden until salvation arrives.  Do not focus on the lion but on the one who controls the lion; Look at how God rescued Daniel from the den of lions without any harm, but those who had falsely accused him were instead thrown into the den and the lions mauled them before they touched ground (Daniel 6:24). 

If Daniel had focused on the lions they would have devoured him. 
If you want to guard your faith, ignore the problems before you but instead look at God and what He can do. The moment you look at the problem your faith will scatter and fear will walk in - fear and faith cannot coexist. We are warned in Hebrews 11:6 (AMP) that; 

“But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him”.

Trust God and Rest

Learn to ignore your problems and instead have faith in your Creator. Whenever Daniel heard the lion’s roars, he fixed his eyes on God and rested – when you trust God you rest. We are consumed by burdens because we focus our eyes on them, instead of looking unto God We should always look upon the Lord for redemption and this confidence and faith is fueled by what God has done for you previously – what He did yesterday, He can do it again today; what God has ever done for one person, He can do again for another. And what He did for Daniel yesterday, He can do for you today because God changes not - “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” - Hebrews 13:8

Quit focusing on your problems because God will not permit them to overwhelm you. He will not permit his righteous to be moved or shaken (Psalm 125:1). It is the will of the devil to have you shaken but God says that for whatever step you take in to a place He has given you, you will be established (Deuteronomy 11:24). Everywhere you step, you will be established. In every step you take, you will be shaken because the devil will try to fail you, but God says you will not be moved. Psalm 35:1 (NLT) says; “O Lord, oppose those who oppose me. Fight those who fight against me”.  

You may have people opposing you but it does not matter who is opposing you because God will fight all those who oppose you. Tell the Lord what is pulling you down. When you pray, mention every area of your life that is filled with burdens. God will hear your prayers and He will deliver you.

The Salvation journey is a growth journey that involves ascending or growing from one level to another, and the moment you start to ascend, the devil will attack you and shake your movements so that you stagger and retrogress, but however much he tries you shall not be moved but shall instead progress because “for everyone born of God is victorious” – 1 John 5:4.

Let us unburden by surrendering to God of any load that is too heavy to bear.  Let us always call upon Him in prayer because everyone who calls on the name of the Jesus is saved. Do not fix your eyes on the gigantic problems before you lest you will be defeated. The bible says in Psalms 37:25 (NIV) that; 
“I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread”.  
No righteous person will be forsaken. God will not allow it.

If you are overwhelmed by any situation, surrender it to the Lord God who makes the impossible possible. Report everything wearing you out to God, because He cares and can ably deal with it. Just like David cried out in Psalm 42:3 (HCSB); 
“My tears have been my food day and night, while all day long people say to me, “Where is your God?”  

The time for tears is no more; it’s time to surrender to God, standstill on His word and patiently wait upon His salvation. They will no longer ask where your God is but He will be manifested in the works when He turns your tears into a testimony. The negative insulting words spoken by those around you are programmed to tear down your faith and hope but do not focus on them, instead take heart and believe God (Psalm 27:14).

Take your eyes off the burdens and cast them to the Lord; for He will take them up and give you rest.

Psalm 68:19 (GNT); 
“Praise the Lord,

who carries our burdens day after day;

He is the God who saves us”