Thought for 7 November 2025

 

Psalm 55:22

Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you.  He will not permit the Godly to slip and fall.  

Burden or burdens are words that are seldom used these days. Alternatives could be a load, a weight, a liability, an inconvenience, an obligation or a problem.  As an experiment, I tried to identify some of my own in recent times and came up with the following:

·       Trying to help an acquaintance that is experiencing a challenging situation at work

·       Trying to work out how to be in two places at once 

·       Tring to find a route to anywhere that doesn’t have temporary traffic lights

·       How to keep promises that I’ve made (when unforeseen things get in the way)

·       My attempt at building a flatpack tv unit which includes 4 doors and three drawers

·       Getting agreement on how big a tv to buy that’ll sit upon this unit 

·       Things that I would like to do that I just haven’t got round to doing

·       And many more…..

 Now we all have our own burdens, but I reckon most of us don’t recognise all of them as such and just get on with it.  Compared to what others are going through, my list will probably seem a bit trivial, but every item on that list takes up time and has to be dealt with, and there is always a risk that sometimes, it all just gets on top of you.

The first option may be to take our problems to a partner or a friend, but they do not always have the satisfactory answers or the time to put aside to hear you out.  The core message in today’s reading is to take all your problems to the Lord in prayer at any time of the day or night  He may not always give you the answers you want when you want them, but he will most certainly give you the answers you need when you need them. 

 The Psalmist tells us to bring our problems to the Lord, and we know that he will bear them upon his own shoulders on our behalf.  It is a real comfort knowing we have someone who will share all our burdens, experience the fears and frustrations we experience and all we have to do is ask.  The second part of this short verse reassures us that at the times in our lives when we are most vulnerable, he will be with us, he will support us and not allow us to fall.

 Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you that no matter what challenges and problems make our lives difficult, and no matter what threats and risks we face, we may cast all our burdens upon you, knowing that you will sustain and strengthen us.  We know that in Christ, we need never be shaken by terrors or threats. We praise God that he is as present with us today as he was with David, all those years ago. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. (with thanks to knowing-jesus.com)