A Friend’s Burden
A friend loves at all time, and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2
Sometimes, the fruits of the Spirit seem to face head on collisions with the realities of life. The hatred of other people, chaos, crabby or mean people, harsh tones, absolute fear of the future, and even friends who let us down. So many things and people in life seem to want to snatch the love, joy, and peace that God promises His people they can have.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, ….. all of the fruits of the Spirit are gifts from God to His children. We are able to grow and develop them in our lives over time as our faith grows and our knowledge and understanding of our Savior increases.
At our church last night I heard prayers for a couple of people who are unemployed, a couple of people who have serious, life threatening illnesses, and even marriages in trouble and rebellious children. These people face difficult times and for some, very difficult decisions in order to change their situations. Those are hard things to face alone.
Praise God He never gives us more than we can bear. I Corinthians 10:13 says that these things are common to man but God is faithful and will not give us more than we can endure. But, how do we endure when the future looks questionable if not bleak?
The Bible repeatedly reminds us to remember – to remember what God has done for us in the past, to remember who He is, and His character traits. We are to store up His Word in our hearts so he can remind us of His truths when we need them. The facts are that people are the same as we always have been. Judges 8:34 says this, “And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side.”
When things get bad in our lives, we, too, have a tendency to forget God’s past faithfulness when He brought us through our troubles. This is one of the reasons that God tells us to “Bear one another’s burdens”. Our emotions can be so strong because our hurt is so deep that we do not see things clearly. We can’t remember what we learned yesterday no less how it applies to our situation.
God hears our prayers, our cries for help in these difficult times. I thank Him for His mercy on us when He is testing us. His Word is full of wise counsel for us. We need to go to Him, pray and search His Word. He will remind us of what He has said so that we can find encouragement and hope for our circumstances.
He also calls us to seek the counsel of others (Proverbs 15:22, 20:18) and to share our burdens (Galatians 6:2) so they will not be too great. Proverbs 17:17 says that a friend loves at all times. When our friends are in these circumstances it is the time to make a show of our love for them. They need someone else who knows the Word of God to point them to the truth of who God is and what he wants for His children. Iron sharpens iron even in the worst situations. (Proverbs 27:17)
God uses the difficult circumstances of our lives to grow our faith in Him, to increase our understanding of just how Merciful, Great, and Holy He is. His word is clear that when we are afraid we can trust in Him (Psalm 56:3), that he is our ever present help in times of trouble, and that He will be our refuge (Psalm 46:1). Because of that we need to point our friends to the scriptures and to the One who can offer them hope. Sometimes, often, in fact, He uses regular old everyday friends to deliver that message.
Who needs some hope and encouragement that you could provide the Words of God to, even today? Will you do it with love, peace, patience, and kindness?