Casting Your Burdens on the Lord - Part One: "What is Your Burden?"

When I became a Christian many years ago, one of the first verses I ever “hid in my heart” was Psalm 55:22: Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

At the time, those words seemed almost too good to be true. They helped me deal with my problems and encouraged my growth in grace. I read them over and over, memorizing them without even trying. Now, four decades later, Psalm 55:22 is even more precious to me. Its truth and comfort and promise remain constant, even though my life circumstances (and burdens) are much different.

I thought it might be a blessing to share the verse that has been such a blessing to me. My plan is to focus on asking and answering three questions: for this post, what is your burden? Next time, what are your options? And for a final post on the verse, what is God’s promise?

Four Steps to Climb Out of a Pit of Depression

Mark Alan Williams, one of my oldest and closest friends, has a great blog you should read called Making Life Count. Here's a guest post from Mark that should encourage all of us. Thanks for writing this, Mark!

While planting my first church I experienced the worst depression of my life. It seemed as though I had worked so hard with such minimal results. I felt like a terrible failure.

At meals I hardly spoke and stared blankly. I was too embarrassed to share my feelings. I suffered silently, miserably and alone.

Sadly, I even doubted God’s love and His Word. This caused me to question whether I should be a pastor. My negative doubts and thoughts threw me into a tailspin of confusion and despair.

I was stuck in the pit of depression.

Jesus, the Judge, and You

You stand there before the bar of God’s justice. You feel anxious and your heart is pounding. Right next to you is Jesus. He looks at you, and His smile is kind, but somewhat sad. He doesn't say anything.

Seated facing you, across that holy bench, is God the Father. He looks at Jesus, and smiles with radiance and love and fatherly pride. You know His deepest delight is His Son. “This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” Then He glances at you without speaking.

The Judge of all the earth is holding in His hand a stack of papers, and you can see that they are a list of many, many sins. With dismay you realize this is a personal list – an exhaustive description of all your sins.

The Father begins to read. “Lying.” The word hangs there, like a rude noise in a still room. You immediately remember a half dozen times where you lied just recently. You’re about to confess, when Jesus speaks. “I did it.” “What?” the Father says. “You’re the liar?” Jesus nods.

The Judge returns to the paper. “Pride, and treating other people with contempt.” Again you flash on many occasions when you've been guilty. But again Jesus confesses. “That’s Me. I did it.”  The Father seems to be looking at Jesus differently.

He keeps reading – a whole string of things: lust, murder in your heart, cheating, anger to manipulate others, blasphemy, callousness toward the pain of others, coveting and envy. You know in each case that you did all these things multiple times.

But Jesus says, “Yes, that was Me. I did them all.”

A dark cloud seems to cross the Father’s face. He stares at Jesus for a long minute. “You? You did all these things? I am of purer eyes than to look upon sin. You disgust Me.” And even as He turns away from Jesus, He pronounces sentence: “You’ll be punished to the full extent of the Law, even unto death.”

Then the Father looks at you. His smile is radiant as He says, “My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.”

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

The Signs of the Filling of the Holy Spirit

What does the “filling of the Holy Spirit” look like? What signs or evidences mark the Spirit’s fullness in the life of a Christian?

Some Christians might be inclined to answer, The signs of the fullness of the Spirit are ecstatic utterances, or prophetic words of knowledge, or supernatural power. But the passage that gives the most complete answer comes from Ephesians 5:18-21. And the real evidence of the Holy Spirit’s fullness might surprise you.

Are You "Filled with the Holy Spirit"?

Are you “filled with the Holy Spirit?”

And what does “full of the Holy Spirit” mean, anyway? What does "the filling" look like?

I’d like to tackle those two questions in this post and the next one. And to do so, I’ll rely upon the most definitive passage on this subject in the Scriptures, Ephesians 5:18-21.

¹⁸ And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, ²⁰ giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

So first, what is the filling of the Holy Spirit?

Here are four key words that summarize my understanding of the Holy Spirit's filling: 1. Contrast. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but…Paul points out a striking difference between two experiences: alcoholic drunkenness versus Holy Spirit filling. Instead of of abandoning ourselves to a drug, we are to yield ourselves to the Spirit. Instead of being an embarrassment (debauchery) to the name of Christ, we are to be under the sway of His Spirit.

2. Control. Essentially Paul is talking about who or what is the dominant influence in the life of believers in Jesus. When we repent of our sins and believe in Christ, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our lives (see Romans 8:9). He is the one who supplies the power to live our faith in Jesus. Spirit-filled Christians are people who submit to the Holy Spirit.

3. Command. Be filled with the Spirit. Scripture lists the fullness of the Spirit not as a suggestion or a good idea to investigate, but as God’s directive for all His children.

4. Continuous. Literally, God’s command is “be continually filled with the Holy Spirit.” Some people speak of the Holy Spirit’s filling as an event that happened to them, but God’s word describes it as an ongoing flow of life. More like water flowing through a pipe than water being poured into a container.

The filling of the Holy Spirit is God’s desire (His command) for all believers in Christ. Obeying His command that we be filled is not complicated. Simply pray, confess any known sin, and yielding by faith to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

And for next time, let’s talk about the evidence of the filling of the Holy Spirit. 

"Have You Been Baptized in the Holy Spirit?"

The summer after my freshman year of college, I was excited about sharing my Christian faith. Some friends and I decided we should have evangelistic meetings in the small city park in my home town.

I’m pretty sure we didn't talk to anyone “official” about our plans, or apply for a permit. We just told everyone we could that we were going to have “meetings” in the park that weekend. We loaded a piano into the bed of a pickup and that became the stage. We drove the pickup onto the lawn at the park, set up some folding chairs, and we were set. Somebody played the piano, someone else led singing, and I stood up to preach the gospel.

It wasn't pretty, but when I gave the “altar call” there were some folks in the audience who turned to Christ.

But a strange thing happened in the middle of our evangelistic zeal. Somehow word of our outdoor evangelism had reached a group of Christians in a nearby town. They showed up on one of the nights, and after I preached, a group of five or six of them asked to speak to me.

They pulled their chairs in a circle, with me in the middle. The spokesman, a young guy with a wispy beard about ten years older than I, asked me a question: “Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit?"

The Missing Piece, Part 2

Today I was thinking about the day after Jesus’ resurrection. Some people think He went directly back to heaven. But the Bible is clear - He stayed here on Planet Earth for 40 days, and more than 500 people saw Him. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:5-8).

But what was that first Monday like? I know as a pastor I’m usually exhausted after Easter Sunday, and all I did was preach. Christ’s weekend started with a stressful, sleepless night, and went downhill from there. In the space of three days He was betrayed by one of His closest friends, deserted by the rest of them, and tortured by His enemies. He bore all the sins of all God’s people throughout time, and experienced the wrath and judicial abandonment of His Father. And then He died.

So the day after, after He rose again in triumph, I wonder if He didn’t simply rest. But Scripture does not give us those details.

What it does give us, though, is the sweeping confidence that Christ’s resurrection is the seal of approval, the great proof that God’s plan of redemption worked.

Last time I compared the resurrection to “the missing piece” of a puzzle, and began a short journey through the book of Romans. Here’s part two.