Giving • Devotion 2

I Can Carry You
Jeannie Yates

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Galatians 6:2-3

There are two ways to bring in the groceries: taking several trips or the right way, taking all the bags at once. Raise your hand if you are an all-the-bags-in-one-trip person! When my husband and I were first married, we rented an apartment on the second floor and we always made sure to load up our arms to carry everything in one trip. Bringing in groceries is much easier now that I can simply pull up, honk my horn, and enlist my minions, I mean children, to carry them in for me!

The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Have you ever felt burdened? It is easy to get bogged down in life, to have worries and pressures of the day-to-day weigh down your heart and mind; but if we read the verse before this, we see that Paul is talking about a specific kind of burden. Galatians 6:1 says, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” Sin is the heaviest and loneliest burden to carry, and if we are to survive the temptation that leads to sin, we have to enlist believers to help us carry it. In fact, James tells us to confess our sins to other believers so that we may be healed (James 5:16).

We need each other - that is why getting into a Growth Community is so important! Not only will you then have a group of people to talk about the Bible and pray with, but you will have others to help bear your burdens. Maybe, there is someone that needs you to help carry their burden. We have to be ready, willing, and able to help one another in a “spirit of gentleness” and not with pride or judgment. We are just as susceptible as anyone else. The next verse in Galatians warns us about this, “For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Galatians 6:3).

Hebrews 12:1 reminds us, “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” In order to run the race before us, we have to lay down the things that hold us back. Do not wait, do not put it off. If you are struggling under the weight of temptation or sin, you do not have to bear it alone.

In one of my favorite movies, “The Return of the King,” Frodo has been given the daunting task of destroying the One Ring in the fire of Mordor. His dear friend, Samwise Gamgee, has taken the journey with Frodo all the way from the Shire. As they climb Mount Doom and the burden is almost too much for Frodo to bear, Sam gently reminds him, “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.”