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Those are some of the most comforting verses in the Bible, if you think about it. How often we can grow weary and tired of the things happening in our lives. No matter how many vitamins we take, how many hours we sleep and how much muscle strength we have, if we don’t have the emotional strength, we really can’t make it.
Anyone who has worked in ministry or interacts with people regularly has experienced this, I’m sure. But the Lord promises that His burden is light. So why am I feeling so crushed, depressed and full of self-pity? Then it’s not the Lord’s burden. It is God’s work maybe, but I am doing it in my own energy, not following the Scripture as Paul said to Timothy, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).
The Lord reminded me of the words of Nehemiah: “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (chapter 8 verse 10). Not the work, not the result of the work, not the amount of money that is raised, not the number of people laboring on the field. It is the “joy of the Lord is my strength.” Nothing else is going to sustain you.
I think about Hansini, whom you read about on page 3, and the burden she carried of fighting for her son’s life against her husband’s will. What a tremendous load this woman had to endure, until she came to know Christ’s love and was able to let Him carry it and her. What joy this abandoned mother experienced because of Christ’s strength in her!
We will never know until we get to heaven the enormous impact that our lives are making—even with the burdens we carry, our struggles and weaknesses and whatever else—both here and around the world.
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