September 14 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Isaiah 46:3–4

Devotional

In true religion we do not have to carry God and His cause. The Lord will carry us and our cause. Will man choose God, or will God have to choose man? Will man bring sacrifices to God, or will the sacrifice of atonement have to come from God’s side? Will the church carry God’s faithfulness, or will God’s faithfulness carry the church? Will a child of God take care of God, or will God take care of His child?

We know the right answer to all these questions. And yet in the daily routine of our everyday lives we give a wrong answer. As a result, we are as the heathen with dumb idols. We are as the heathen without God on whom we can cast all our cares. That is how poor the heathen are. That is also how poor we are outside of the living God. We may have a religion, but still not the true religion, if the God who says “I will carry,” is not known.

Sometimes God makes our burdens so heavy that we cannot carry them any longer. This is good for the children of God. The Lord does this to teach us not to carry our burdens ourselves. When does the eagle carry its young ones? Not when they are still in the nest, but when they have been turned out of the nest and, with a huge distance below them, are wrestling and falling in the air. It is just as with that little boy who wanted to help his father and carry something for him. But the little boy could not carry it. He fell. But his father picked him up and carried the lad together with the burden that he had to carry.

“I will carry.” That is how God deals with His people. It is to their shame for they always want to carry. Oh, if only they would surrender! It would be to their comfort, if they would learn to lay their burdens in His hand. We need to lean on Him, for there is no life too heavily burdened that He would not be able or willing to carry it. The great Shepherd of His sheep descended to lost sheep, and of Him it is written that He lays them on His shoulders and brings them back to the flock. Otherwise they would remain lying in their sins and misery and be obliged to carry the burden of sin themselves forever. That is how they are carried. They are carried home on the shoulders of the Surety.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.