Sharing our troubles

Philippians 4:14 ESV
Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.

How great a blessing it is to have brothers and sisters who are willing to allow one to share one's burdens.  Certainly we all have our own burdens to bear but to take on those of another is truly a good work.

Alone is possibly one of the most tragic feelings a believer can have.  To feel that one cannot share one's burdens is a very sad feeling.  Alone is a tough thing to feel, yet it is all too common among believers.

Yes, we know that He is always with us, but it was not His plan that He be the only one who is there for us.

Galatians 6:2 ESV
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

We are admonished to bear one another's burdens.  This is not optional.  This is an imperative.  But sadly, it is one that is more often avoided than embraced.

We, Patti and I, are wonderfully blessed by folks who are willing to shoulder our burdens both in prayer and engagement.  They may tire under the load but they never put it down. Even when their own loads are heavy and pressing they open their hearts and arms to ours.  It is a great gift and a great part of God's plan for His people.

God does not tell us to "fix" the burdens of others, although if we can we should, but rather to "bear" them.  The primary way we do this is by being willing to be informed of those burdens.  Unfortunately there is little place or time in the life of the Church for such things to happen.  Also, I think that we are afraid to know the burdens of others because they may impose some strong response on our part, some sacrificial response.

Knowing the burdens of another does carry it's own responsibility.  If nothing else, it carries the obligation to really pray for them and WITH them.  It is not the bullet prayer that is needed but the deep, knowledgeable, sincere and focused prayer.  It means entering their battleground with petitions and supplications on their behalf.  It also requires that we stay informed of their needs by staying engaged.  It is a sad propensity for us to hear of a burden and then avoid it for fear we will be called to actually do something regarding it.

We can testify to the wonderfulness of having brothers and sisters who engage, stay engaged and do what they can to help bear the burden.  Just the knowledge that we are remembered, especially remembered in prayer, is a comfort beyond price.  That someone is carrying us to the throne of grace is indeed a great comfort, blessing and encouragement.

Philemon 1:7 ESV
For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

Trusting God - Trouble (b)

Matthew 6:34 ESV
"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

In the second part of this versewe're told that each day has its own troouble and that that troublee is sufficient.

Car breakdowns, illness, traffic, bad news, sudden expenses even missed oppotunities are all the types of trouble we experience and we tend to just take them in stride.  But should we?

Is there anything in our lives that is too trivial for God?  Is there anything about our lives that the God who numbers my hairs and my days can be disconnected from?  No, I have to believe that nothing - NO thing - in and about my life is too trivial for God to be concerned with.

Traffic is bad, other drivers are rude and I am running late for an important meeting.  That has a great effect on my attitiude and temper.  Is God not interested in that as much as anything else?  Is He not concerned that I arrive at the meeting calm and composed so I may do my best and honor Him?  Does He not care about my heart and needs?  To assume - even by lack of attention- that God is not interested in the smallest thing in my life makes a mockery of Jesus' claim that He is interested.

How much attention though do we pay to the trivial?  Do we pray about these things?  A timely arrival at a meeting, a good parking place, no car breakdown,   Or deo we just figure their random things that we just have to suffer and deal with?

Brothers and sisters, our very lives are composed of a multitude of the trivial that all fit together to build our lives.  One thing goes wrong and we feel our dau is spoiled.  A bad hair day and we're cast down all day.  One "little" thing does not go according to our plans and we're mortified and depressed.  It should not be this way.

The only things I know that will assist us in livng in the "trouble" we encounter each day is attention to detail in prayer.  We do not waaste God's time or providence by praying for what we consider trivial or silly.  Indeed when we do pray for these things we are confirming in our hearts and minds that our God is the God of the details no matter how trivial they seem to us.  We do not "bother" god when we go to Him with anything.  Indeed we are dmonished to do exactly that.

Need to meed a quota?  Need Power Point to work right?  Need for traffic to no be a problem?  Why not pray about that?  What excuse could we possibly have for not praying about things of this nature.

Each day has trouble.  /each day needs to begin with pray and especially prayer about facing the trouble the day will bring.  And as we encounter these troubles we need to be praying about them asking God to help us see His use for them, His purpose in allowing them into our lives - when they happen!

Paul tells us to "pray always," and this admonition in Matthew is one very important reason why.  We can never pray too much and we can never thing anything in our lives is too trivial to pray about.

Trusting God?  Trusting God for the trivial?  Who else are you going to trust?  

Trusting God is not about trusting Him for BIG things it is trusting Him for EVERYTHING.