Bear Your Own Burdens

“For every man shall bear his own burden.” Is this a contradiction of verse 2?—By no means. When the Scripture tells us to bear one another’s burdens, it does not tell us to throw our burdens on one another. Each one is to cast his burden on the Lord. Psalm 55:22. He bears the burden of the whole world, of all mankind, not in mass, but for each individual. We cast our burdens on Him, not by gathering them up in our hands, or with our mind, and hurling them from ourselves to one who is at a distance. That can never be done. Many have tried to get rid of their burden of sin and pain and care and sorrow, but have failed, and have felt it roll back upon their own heads heavier than ever, until they have well-nigh sunk in despair. What was the trouble?—Simply this: they regarded Christ as at a distance from them, and they felt that they themselves must bridge the gulf. It is impossible. The man who is “without strength” can not cast his burden the length of his arm, and as long as we keep the Lord at arm’s length, we shall not know rest from the weary load. It is when we recognize and confess Him in us, as our sole support, our life, the One whose power it is that makes every motion, and so confess that we are nothing, and sink out of sight, no longer deceiving ourselves, that we leave the burden resting on Christ. He knows what to do with it, and yoking up with Him we learn of Him how to bear the burdens of others.GTI 240.2

Then how about bearing our own burden?—Ah, it is the Divine “power that worketh in us” that bears it! “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” It is I, and yet it is not I, but Christ. Now I have learned the secret. I will not weary somebody else with the story of my burden, but will bear it myself, yet not I, but Christ in me. There are people enough in the world who have not yet learned this lesson of Christ, so that every child of God will always find work to do in bearing burdens for others; his own he will intrust to the Lord, to find whom he has no further to go than to his own heart. Is it not blessed to have “One who is mighty” always under the burden which falls upon our shoulders?GTI 241.1

This lesson we learn from the life of Christ. He went about doing good, for God was with Him. He comforted the mourners, He bound up the broken-hearted, He healed all that were oppressed of the devil. Not one who came to Him with a tale of sorrow or a distressing malady was turned away without relief; “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” Matthew 8:17. And then when night sent the multitude to their beds, He sought the mountain or the forest, that in communion with the Father, by whom He lived, He might find a fresh supply of life and strength for His own soul. “Let every man prove his own work.” “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 2 Corinthians 13:5. “Though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak with Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God.” Verse 4, margin. So if our faith proves to us that Christ is in us,—and faith proves to us the reality of the fact,—we have rejoicing in ourselves alone, and not in another. We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and our joy does not depend upon any other person in the world. Though all should fail and be discouraged, we can stand, for the foundation of God—Christ—standeth sure.GTI 242.1

Therefore let no one who calls himself a Christian be content to lean on somebody else, but let him, though he be the weakest of the weak, be a burden-bearer,—a worker together with God,—in Christ bearing quietly and uncomplainingly his own burdens, and those of his neighbors also. He can discover some of the burdens of his uncomplaining brother, and bear them, and the other will do likewise. So the rejoicing of the weak will be, “The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation.”GTI 243.1