The Load We Were Never Meant to Bear

Every so often something comes into your life that you don't expect. It can come in many forms, but it is so out of the blue that you can't brace for it.


"Mum, I'm pregnant" - and 14
"I'm sorry, it's cancer"
"There's been an accident..."

The ground gets pulled out from under us and we just stagger under the load.

God didn't design us to cope. This isn't a flaw in the design, or in the programming of Mankind. We were made for paradise. We were designed to live for ever. When God made us, He made us in His image. Immortal and unflawed.

Enter Satan...

When sin entered into the world God had made everything in creation changed as Death entered with it. Everything except our programming.

Suddenly we were going to die. There was a finite time period for existence in this world. Worse, we were separated from the only one who could help us.

Sin, sickness, Death. This world was opened up to everything Hell had instead of the riches of Heaven.

Adam was over 900 years old when he ceased to exist in this world, but we don't know how long he had existed before the fall. It's possible he and Eve had lived for centuries before they tasted the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Adam sinned and condemned all of us.

Jesus came to put it right. God had a choice. He could eliminate everything and start over, or He could redeem His creation. From the very moment Adam ate the fruit he had been forbidden to eat Jesus began to move. "And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel" (Genesis 3:15) It was the child of a woman, not a man who would crush the serpent's head. Jesus was born of woman, but His Father was God Himself, just as Adam's was. He would face the same temptations and the same trials as Adam, but where Adam had fallen, Jesus would succeed. Instead of surrendering to Satan, Jesus did what Adam was meant to do -  He rebuked Satan and walked away. Satan was left powerless against Him.

It's because of this that we have a share in Eternal Life. Jesus chose to give to everyone who accepted His sacrifice a share of what He had gained. He gave us a piece of Himself, and took from us what we were never designed to cope with.

The enemy will still try to put a load onto us. Cancer, HIV, alcoholism, addictions - the list is long and sounds daunting. Whatever comes against us is merely a distraction designed to draw us away from God and trusting Him and His goodness though.

We are bombarded with facts. They add to the load. Words like "inoperable", "Incurable", "chronic condition" and "lifetime illness" are thrown around and destroy our faith. The facts can build us up, but the enemy will use the facts to distract us from the Truth and to put onto us a load we should never have had to bear.

We have been given the Name of Jesus. In His name we have authority over all sickness, and even death itself is not an obstacle that is insurmountable.

Until our faith develops to the point that we can do like Jesus and then Peter did and see health return at the command in Jesus name we have the Comforter to teach us and convict us. But even this is twisted. The Spirit comes, but "...when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness". (John 16:8). He will convict of Sin, but He will convict of Righteousness. Since He has come, we are therefore convicted of our status. Satan deafens us to the whole message though. We readily accept te burden of being a sinner, and accept the sin we have been living in, because we can see it. But we get so bogged down in that we don't hear the rest. Because of Jesus we are righteous. We are made in right standing with God. He sees us as sinless as Jesus because the burden was taken from us again by His sacrifice.

Lift the load from our shoulders and give it to Jesus. He said we must take His yoke. His burden is light. He wants us to take His load, and He will take ours.