Share the Load

My heart is heavy right now, not because of anything that I am going through but for my brothers and sisters around me who are in there very own storm right now.  It is very easy to become so consumed with what is going on in our own life that we fail to take a moment and look around us and see the pain the person sitting right next to us is going through.  Heaven forbid, we fail to see what someone is going through in our very own home.  I sat in choir rehearsal and listened to prayer request after prayer request and silently began to pray in my spirit.  You just never know what someone is going through.  What amazed me even more is that these individuals were still at choir rehearsal singing praises to God.  That in itself was a testimony to who God is, in and of itself.

As I drove home Galatians 6:2 kept playing in my mind.  "Carry each other's burdens, and in this very way you will fulfill the law of Christ."  The word “burden” in this verse can refer to failures, temptations, testings, trials, sorrows or suffering, as well as work loads.  I can only imagine that if everyone in the choir stand had an opportunity to talk we would have been overloaded.  Family members sick with cancer, children at war in a foreign country, skin diseases, bleeding on the brain, hearing problems, children moving out on their own, diabetes, death, personal storms and struggles.  It was just too much for me.  But as I continued to drive home, my mind begin to settle.  A peace came over my spirit.  I begin to meditate on God's Word.  You see, because even though it may have been too much for me, it wasn't close to being too much for the God we serve.  That is why every one of the individuals who uttered prayer request were still there singing.  Because they believe in the God that they were singing about.  And even more than that they knew that there were other saints of God in that choir stand who believe in Him too and when they opened their mouths to share the burden they were carrying that those saints would take the time to pray for  them. 

That is what it is about y'all.  We all need someone.  Yes, we serve a mighty God and He can handle anything.  But I believe that there are some angels here on earth.  They hear a need and they begin to pray. Some of them don't need to hear about the need, they see the need.  They don't just pray once but several times.  They have seen God deliver and make a way out of no way.  It's not even that everything is fine at their own homes but something in their spirit says PRAY.  It made me think about when my entire world was crumbling underneath me and the weight was too heavy to bear.  I just wanted to give up and for a brief moment I almost did.  I remember waking up from about an hour of sleep feeling strange.  It wasn't a bad feeling.  I felt like the weight had shifted.  When I look back on that day I believe that some prayer warriors had asked God to let them carry my load just to give me a little more strength and each day that load got lighter and my strength increased a little bit more.  Maybe that's why my heart was heavy driving home because I could relate.  No matter what you may be going through right now, there is someone whose situation may be even worse.  So take the time to show compassion, empathize and more importantly pray.  By doing this you fulfill the law of Christ...which is to love.

Dear Lord,

It's not me standing in the need of prayer right now but it's my sister (my brother).  They are in need.  The situation is not one that I can do anything physically to change but I can pray.  Lord, I know that you are able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all I could ever ask or imagine.  I know that you were wounded for our transgression and bruised for our iniquity; the chastisement of our peace was upon you and with your stripes we are healed.  I don't know what your plan is for my sister's (brother's) life, but I do know that you are able to provide a peace that surpasses all understanding.  I know that you can give joy in the very midst of their suffering.  So that is what I am asking right now...for a calm in the midst of the storm.  I know that You can.  I believe that You will.  In Your most wonderful name I pray  Amen.