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Harvest Daily 11/17/04


Harvest Daily Devotional
by Pastor Greg Laurie



 

November 17
Cast Your Burdens

"Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved." - Psalm 55:22

Have you ever faced discouragement in life?  If so, understand that you are in good company.  The Bible is filled with people of God who struggled with times of discouragement.

Take a look at someone like Moses.  Here was a great man of faith, chosen by God to deliver the 10 Commandments to Israel.  But even he encountered times of discouragement.  On one occasion, he was so overwhelmed by the consistent complaining of the Israelites that he said to the Lord, "I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me.  If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now . . ." (Numbers 11:14-15).

Then there was the Prophet Elijah.  Shortly after God used Elijah to call down fire from heaven at Mount Carmel, he discovered that the wicked Queen Jezebel wanted him dead.  Despaired and discouraged, Elijah said, "Take my life Lord."  Then there was the Apostle Paul, who tells us of similar discouraging times when he wrote to the Corinthians that "We were burdened beyond measure, above all strength so we even despaired of life" (2 Corinthians 1:8).

If you - like Moses, Elijah, and Paul - have ever experienced times when you were overwhelmed, don't feel alone.  Remember that fear lives right next door to faith.  We can ride the roller coaster from fear to faith over and over.  One moment we say, "Everything will be fine.  No problem."  Then the next moment we can look at the same circumstances and find ourselves in absolute despair.  So what is the answer?  We must recognize that we are human - just like the great people of Scripture.  The solution is to cast our burdens on God and [JMB3]pray for the strength to place our problems in their proper perspective.

Copyright (c) 2004 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000.

 



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