Casting Your Burden on the Lord - Part 2: "What are Your Options?"

Everybody has burdens, and Psalm 55:22 tells us what to do with them. Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Last time I asked “what is your burden?” Burdens may seem heavy, wearisome, painful, unfair, and destructive. But they are also given to us by our wise, kind, loving, and all-powerful Heavenly Father. 

So in this post I want to focus on how we’re supposed to deal with our burdens.

What are your options?

As in most things, there are only a limited number of possibilities to deal with the burdens of life.

1. Resent them. Sometimes people express their resentment at the burdens they carry by bitterness and blaming. But resentment only increases the weight of the burden. Not to mention that ultimately the resentment is aimed at the God of the universe. Not a good option.
   
2. Ignore them. Living in denial, not facing the real burdens in your life, achieves nothing. Not admitting burdens or minimizing the weight of them is no more effective (or safe) than ignoring an oncoming train.
3. Surrender to them. Fatalism is a way of giving up. Burdens can become an excuse for failure, rather than a challenge to overcome or a trial to endure and learn from. Another bad option.
4. Fight them. We admire people who take life’s lemons and make lemonade. But if “overcoming” is simply the triumph of self, it will produce pride and subtly crowd God out of the equation.
5. Cast them on the Lord. This is what we’re commanded to do, and the only real choice for a follower of Jesus. But what does “casting your burdens on the Lord” really mean?

Casting your burden.

The Hebrew word “to cast” is used in a lot of different ways, but what does it mean here, when we’re told to cast our burdens on the Lord?

Here are some examples of the same verb that might help understand the meaning in Psalm 55:22:

• Joseph’s brothers cast him into a pit (Genesis 37:20).
• Pharaoh decreed that baby boys be cast into the river (Exodus 1:22).
• Moses cast the tablets to the ground and broke them (Deuteronomy 9:17).
• Elijah cast his mantle upon Elisha (1 Kings 19:19).
• Elisha cast a stick into the water, causing an axehead to float (2 Kings 6:6).
• Rebellious people cast the Law behind their backs (Nehemiah 9:26).

"Casting" means releasing, giving up, letting go. To cast our burdens is not to make them disappear, but to entrust them to God. It means to submit them to Him without conditions, without trying to control the outcome, agreeing that He can do whatever He wishes with the burdens, and with us.

God has given His children the unique burdens we carry, and what He expects us to do with them is give them back to Him. 

Next time we'll talk about What is God's promise when we cast our burdens upon Him?