{"id":5100,"date":"2011-04-04T09:11:29","date_gmt":"2011-04-04T16:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/?p=5100"},"modified":"2013-03-02T16:29:49","modified_gmt":"2013-03-02T21:29:49","slug":"lay-your-burden-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/lay-your-burden-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Lay Your Burden Down."},"content":{"rendered":"

\""self-portrait"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Does this look like a helpless ass, to you? To be honest, it looks like me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, I had an insightful time of devotional reading and prayer. I was convicted to lay my burdens down. I hadn’t properly realized how heavy my load of worries has been.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

After I gave them to God to carry, I noticed how exhausting it has been to leverage them. My epiphany: I can be inadvertently as stubborn and pathetic as an overburdened ass, to the point where my load masters me.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe you need to find some relief too.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are about 20 days until Easter (Resurrection Sunday). The time is ripe<\/span> to take a potent inventory of your worries, sins, and burdens. You are tired. You are more tired than you know. Don’t be stubborn, like me. Relent and give up your load.<\/p>\n

Be encouraged\u2013right now as you read this\u2013to really take a two or three minutes to be aware of the weight and hardship of your current load.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a minute, picture all of that as a huge backpack or bundle (see photo below for visual inspiration). Ask yourself:\u00a0What are my burdens? <\/em>Ask: Why am I carrying them so long?<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you want relief?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
female porter sherpa, mountain climbing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Accept God’s relief.<\/p>\n

Now, put down your load. Put it all the way down. Try to stay with that visual image, and pray about it.<\/strong> What would you like to tell God?
\nWhat have you sensed in this short time of thinking about it?
\nAnd, what, if anything, is God prompting you to do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will you follow your savior up the mountain, and give up your load?<\/p>\n

God’s strength and forgiveness is critical for us to recognize and accept. It is our saving grace. What a cathartic gift it is to lay our burdens down. Remember the joy of your salvation today.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today’s verse for prayer reflection:<\/span>
\nMatthew 11:28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. -Jesus, the Christ<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Feel free to share your thoughts, insights, reflections, random comments, or silly observations. We’re in this together. May your day be blessed.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does this look like a helpless ass, to you? To be honest, it looks like me. Today, I had an insightful time of devotional reading and prayer. I was convicted to lay my burdens down. I hadn’t properly realized how heavy my load of worries has been. After I gave them to God to carry, … Continue reading Lay Your Burden Down.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[232,4598,378,4596,4601,13,785,4608,971,972,19,4599,4697,1064,4167,4796,28,1347,1449,1472,4605,6538,4716,1763,4609,1882,2000,4452,4440,4604,5403,4610,4603,2552,4602,2645,60,2782,2839,4465,4607,2864,2946,2973,5646,3090,3267,4606,85,4241,3444,6004,4860,87,4597,3661,3698,3711,3750,91,4600],"class_list":["post-5100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spirituality","tag-anxiety","tag-ass","tag-belief","tag-burden","tag-catharsis","tag-christianity","tag-confession","tag-conviction","tag-devotional","tag-devotional-reading","tag-devotions","tag-donkey","tag-down","tag-easter","tag-female","tag-follow","tag-forgiveness","tag-free","tag-gift","tag-god","tag-heavy","tag-humor","tag-if","tag-in","tag-insights","tag-joy","tag-lent","tag-lenten","tag-lenten-reflection","tag-load","tag-looks","tag-matthew-1128","tag-pack-animal","tag-photo","tag-porter","tag-pray","tag-prayer","tag-reading","tag-relief","tag-remember","tag-repetance","tag-resurrection","tag-salvation","tag-savior","tag-share","tag-sin","tag-strength","tag-stubborn","tag-theology","tag-thinking","tag-time","tag-tired","tag-visual","tag-walking-with-god","tag-weary","tag-weight","tag-why","tag-will","tag-worries","tag-worship","tag-yoke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5100"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5108,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5100\/revisions\/5108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}