Dear Ones,
Hope you have a great day. Al and I have an appointment this morning and if we are done in time I plan to go to Women’s Bible study. This afternoon we are invited to friends for coffee and fellowship. Emoji
Devotions from Judy’s heart
How is your responsibility button? Do you feel like you need to keep the peace and take responsibility for others? An article from Elijah House addresses the problem of feeling responsible to take on burdens of others and attempt to fix things for them, but that is not our role. We were never meant to hold things together, for that is God’s job and not our burden to carry. We have only a limited view of what will help others; God is the one who sees the whole picture and has the power to carry what is too heavy for us.

We are to love others, listen to them, pray for them and show kindness, but not to the point of taking control and losing ourselves with the weight of their burdens. If we are weary from feeling like that was our responsibility, then the Lord wants to lift that burden from us and set us free. Many children feel that their world at home is unstable and ready to fall apart, so they step into a role of keeping the peace and trying to fix things. But that burden is too heavy as that is the place only the Lord can hold.

If this was a pattern in our life, that we felt it was up to us to hold everyone together, then it is time to get released from it. God wants to free us and give it all to Him. Peter said in I Peter 5:7, “Casting the whole of our care (all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all) on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.” We can trust Him with the care of others and the weight of their problems, and know that He is sufficient, He is the One who holds it all together, and not us. Let us release the weight of those burdens to Him, love others and pray for them, and trust the Lord to fix what needs fixing.

Challenge for today: Give the burden of your loved ones to the Lord, and faithfully pray knowing that He cares for them more than you do.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy