Cast thy burden upon the Lord , and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. – Ps. 55:22 KJV
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The Psalmist in today’s scripture advises all its readers to throw their problems at the Lord. He is able to say this because he is a beneficiary of the goodness of God and his ability to save his own from all kinds of unfriendly attack. The experiences of the Psalmist are listed in verse three of that psalm where he identifies the voice of the enemy and the oppression of the wicked as weapons casting iniquity on him. Verse four refers to the pain in his heart and how he feels death all around him whilst verse five refers to how fear, trembling and horror have all overwhelmed him. It must be a very terrible experience for the Psalmist because in verses six, seven and eight he referred to how the thought of flying away occurred to him if he had wings that is, or just running away from it all to a safe haven so as to find some rest.
Similar experiences may be the lot of you reading this. Although the Psalmist thought of running away, you may have also thought the same way or may be even ending it all. The situation seems so overwhelming and all spiritual activities like fasting and vigils, to at least mitigate the situation seems to be fruitless in nature. This is because like in the case of the Psalmist in verses ten and eleven, it seems the enemy is getting more powerful than ever. It may even be the case also that you can actually identify these enemies as very close people, just as in the case of the Psalmist recorded in verses twelve, thirteen and fourteen and you are beginning to feel let down by their action. These are people that you never would have expected will be inflicting such horror on you and possibly your family yet it is like they are so comfortable and happy doing just that and seem to be getting away with it. They do all these evil with so much arrogance without caring about the effect of their evil action on you.
It gets compounded when it seems even prayers are not effective against them. It is either that these forces are bigger than God or God has actually hired them to apply gradual pain on you until you take your last breathe similar to the situation with the Psalmist. All those prayers of “enemy die”, “confuse the enemy” and “holy ghost fire” is proving to be very ineffective. If anything, things are getting worse.
I can tell you that your thoughts of the enemy either becoming more powerful than God is wrong neither is the thought of connivance to snuff life out of you. If the Psalmist ended up giving testimonies of victory, then you will definitely give your own testimony of victory. No matter how weighty those battles are, your time for testimony is here in the name of Jesus. The delay of your victory testimony is due to your decision to continue to bear all those burden yourself. When the Psalmist stopped doing that and started casting them unto the Lord prayer, his song started to change and his testimony of victory commenced. The Psalmist records in verse eighteen that his calling on the Lord changed his songs and he came out of the battle waged against him unscathed. You too will come out unhurt from this battle and you will sing songs of victory. So what is the difference between what he was doing in verse nine and what he was doing in verses sixteen and seventeen. The difference is that although he was praying in both instances, in the former, he was decreeing and commanding what will happen to the enemy without seeking the view of God. He seemed to be directing God on what to do to the enemy whereas in the latter, he called on God day and night for help with the situation, refusing to see the enemy. There lies the difference between losing a battle and singing victory song.
Immediately he started calling on God in prayer rather than decreeing what will happen to the enemy, God applied his own solution. Whereas he called on God to confuse the enemy with regards to himself, God made the enemies turn on one another with deceitful words – Ps. 55: 20-21. They used their weapons of war on themselves unlike the prayer request for superior weapons to fight them. This is what the Psalmist described as “casting your burden on the Lord”.
Most Christians cannot receive victory in prayer because they ask amiss – Jms. 4:2. In prayer,
1. Your focus should be on the Lord and not on the enemy.
2. You should be pleading for intervention from the Lord and not dictating to the Lord what should happen to the enemy. How did you know that, that “enemy” is not the tool of God to bring Will his to materialise in your life.
3. You are to constantly present your request to God as long as you have a free moment in your thoughts and in all locations – 1Thess. 5:16. There is no specific time as all times are prayer times just as there should be no restriction in terms of location. Prayer must be said at all locations and at all times.
It is when you do the above that you can be said to be casting your burden on him. Just throw all those worries at him. Take your thoughts off these so called enemies and focus on him. Grant Him the liberty to approach your problem in the way he knows best because He will not get involved if you want to take the driving seat. Throw all those burdens at Him, trust Him to handle it in a way that will bring victory songs to your mouth, sit down, place your legs on a leg rest, rest your back, place by your side a glass of drink and watch him move on your behalf and not all that stress of you shouting your voice out because you think you will scare the enemy to submission.
He is not happy to see you in that stress because He cares but what can He do when you, by your action tell Him you are capable and all He has to do is to take instructions from you on what to do. He will not take your instructions and he will not move on your behalf if you do not let him, but if you want to turn all those challenges to victory, then you must learn to cast your burden on him because He really cares.
May God grant you the ability to trust Him with your burden, the wisdom to cast it all on him so that you can begin to enjoy the deserved rest that is your entitlement in Christ Jesus. Amen.
