Sometimes we feel like we can’t carry a person. It’s as if they are draining the life out of us. Of course, this seems unkind at the same time. Once, when I felt as if I were carrying someone who was very heavy, the Lord said this to me; “I didn’t think Judas was too heavy.” That put things in perspective. Though the Lord wasn’t asking me to carry someone who was going to betray me to death, He was telling me that His grace was sufficient for my situation. Jesus knows what it’s like to carry, or care for, people.
The strength we need to carry people and to bear with situations comes from God. Endurance, Hope, and all the components of life that enable us to “last” out a situation are what make up love (1 Cor 13). When I was thinking of “dropping” the person that seemed too heavy to carry, I was thinking of not loving that person anymore. We have a choice in this life, whether to love, or not. So I chose to love.
Though the Apostle Paul describes what love is, we seldom think that we serve God by loving. Yet our faith works through love. If we have faith for a person to be saved, we must minister to them by love. When things are not going well it’s easy to think that other people might benefit from us more than the difficult person we are with, or the slow person who just doesn’t learn well. But practicing love by being patient and kind makes time with the lost go easier for us, and shows the face of God to the unsaved and saved alike
Our presence with people is powerful. The Lord had people in His life, whose lives were transformed. That is how the Spirit of God works through us also. It would be futile to think that we can pray down God’s kingdom if we won’t spend time with the people we are praying to enter that kingdom. The Life of Jesus in us is powerful, to the extent we let it move into other’s lives by loving them. Let us be encouraged today as we carry the situations, and yes, people who seem heavy. There is grace in loving, and we will make a difference in the lives of those around us. Amen.
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