The story is told about a farmer who was driving his wagon down a country road when he noticed an old man slowly making his way down the road with a burdensome pack on his back. Feeling sorry for the man, the farmer stopped and offered him a ride. The old gentleman gratefully accepted the offer and climbed up wearily into the wagon.

As the farmer proceeded down the road, he noticed, however, that the man in the wagon was still carrying his heavy pack on his back. “My friend,” he called out to the man, “why are you still carrying your pack? Why don’t you set it down in the wagon?”

“Oh, sir,” replied the old man.  “It is quite enough for you to carry me in your wagon without carrying my pack as well!”

While we smile at that somewhat silly story, have you noticed that we tend to do the same thing the old gentleman was doing? We struggle with our heavy burdens. Yet when the Lord offers to carry them for us, we hesitate to fully turn them over to Him. The Bible says, “Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you,” “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you,”[1]

The next time you’re struggling with an especially heavy burden, bring it to Jesus—no, let me say that another way. Don’t just bring your burden to Jesus. GIVE it to Him. CAST it on Him.  And leave it there. He loves you, He cares about you.

The Bible says, “Don’t worry about anything instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand” (Philippians 4:6,7 NLT).

[1] Psalm 55:22 NLT, 1 Peter 5:7 NKJV