Bear it

 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 

1 Thessalonians 5:14

Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” The word, “bear” comes from a Greek word which means “to carry, to take up” or to take away or carry off. The word burden comes from a Greek word which means “a weight.”

When you put these two words together, “bear” and “weight”, it means to take away or carry off the weight someone else is experiencing. Essentially, it means to bring relief and comfort to someone else’s life. 

In “The Law of Christ”  John Piper writes: 

“If a Christian brother or sister is weighed down or menaced by some burden or threat, be alert to that and quickly do something to help. Don't let them be crushed. Don't let them be destroyed.”

This doesn’t seem too difficult when you bear someone’s financial burden . . . so you buy them groceries. And it doesn’t seem too difficult when you bear a physical burden by taking someone to the doctor.

But when someone is experiencing a burden you can’t in any way solve, such as mental illness, a midlife crisis, a broken heart, or an ailing marriage, what can you do to bear their burden when you can’t fix their problem? How can you bear their emotional burden without getting crushed under the weight of it yourself when your heart is hurting for them? 

This is what I have been wrestled with many a time in my life. I love the individual. They have no idea how seeing them struggle emotionally and spiritually is breaking my heart. I so want what is good for them. It deeply pains me to see them confused and hurting. 

I was reminded that I cannot force them to see truth. I cannot make them understand. I cannot make them seek help. But I can pray, and in this way I can bear their burden. 

But in praying, I’ve realized there is one thing I must do: I must give the burden I am carrying for them to Jesus. I must let Him have it, or I will get crushed under the weight of it, under the weight of its sadness. Bearing another’s burdens can be crushing if we don’t know what to do with the burdens. But if we know what to do with them, we can experience hope. 

Bearing someone’s burden takes deep courage, faith, and trust. It takes courage to pray, and when needed, to speak truth. It also takes faith and trust to put the one you pray for into God’s loving hands and trust Him for an outcome that you cannot control. It means trusting that the Lord loves them more than you do. 

He knows the needs of the one you cover in prayer. He sees their heartbreak. You are simply called to stand in the gap for them, seek God on their behalf, and ask Him to move for them. 

Bearing one another’s burdens can be difficult, but our load can be made lighter when we know Who to trust, and who to give the other person’s burden to so we are not crushed under it.