When we sacrifice to help others, we may soon begin to view the recipient as a burden to us. Worse still, the recipient may suffer guilty feelings that he is a burden to those who try to help him.
The helpless and needy often seem as burdens to us. Love is giving, love is sacrifice, but our love is weak and poor, and often we begin to resent the weak and helpless that we try to help and to love.
Children can become burdens to their parents, who then begin to wish they would hurry and grow up and leave home to relieve that burden!
Often, the burdensomeness is aggravated by the continuing, on-and-on demands for help that are required. And when the recipient expresses knowledge that he is a burden, the joy we ought to feel at helping others is darkened.
But are we poor believers a burden unto our God, and should we view ourselves as burdens to Him? He gives us so much goodness and grace and help, and our needs never cease, and we cry out continually to Him.
Does God view us as burdens to His grace and love?
The answer from Scripture is a resounding NO! To the contrary, God continually delights in doing us good! He rejoices in showing us mercy and love!
God delights in our coming to Him in prayer.
He delights in providing us righteousness and justice and lovingkindness, which as poor sinners we are always in need of.
Why does God continually love us and do good for us and show us mercy? Because He delights in those things!
Imagine the glory of this: it just so happens that the very things we are so needy of - righteousness, and salvation, and mercy - are the very things God delights in giving to us!
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
