Making the Lord a priority is difficult sometimes. Life gets in the way of reading the Bible, praying, and doing kind and helpful things for others. The cares of this life can become overwhelming, and before we know it, we’re completely distracted by them.
One day I was talking to the Lord about an ongoing troubling issue that seemed to have no immediate solution. I’m sure many, if not most of us have experienced such “overburdens”—situations that drag on and on, before there is light at the end of the tunnel and an answer appears. As I prayed about the overburden, I sensed the Lord say to me, Give me the whole ball of wax. Instantly I felt my downcast spirit lift! An amusing word picture formed in my mind, and I envisioned a ball of wax that was getting larger and larger as I rolled each aspect of the problem onto the ball. A perfectly large, round ball of wax was completed as I rolled every little complicated, annoying part of my burden into it.
Give your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you, Psalm 55:22 (NLT) says. Peter reminds us of that in 1 Peter 5:7, when he writes, Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. The word “cast” is an interesting one. In the Old Testament, giving or “casting” your burdens on the Lord is a word that means to throw your burden on the Lord in much the same way that a merchant threw his packs and burdens on a donkey, the beast of burden. Again in the New Testament, the word for cast, epiripto, means to throw upon. Merchants didn’t lightly lay their packs on the donkey’s back; their burdens were often heavy, and they forcefully heaved them onto the animal. Casting is an action word.
So, I threw the whole ball of wax onto the Lord! It was great! Why not start your week by rolling up the whole ball of wax you’re dealing with—the annoying, troubling, distracting, draining situation in your life—and give it a toss…right onto Jesus, the Great Burden Bearer. Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens (Psalm 68:19 NIV).
© 2020, Chris Werre