BURDENS ARE LIFTED AT CALVARY
Acts 13:38-39
Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.
I needed help getting up. My buddy gave me a push from behind and I lurched forward, catching my balance just before tipping over forward. Once I had gotten my bearings I started up the mountain toward the truck, a mile above. My dad had taught me years before to always load a pack frame with the weight high. If you have the weight low it puts a tremendous stress in your lower back. Actually a heavy pack is hard on your back either way, but the load is easier to bear when you lash it on high.
By the time I got to the truck my back hurt so bad I could barely walk... not only was my back hurting by my thighs were stiffening up like a rock. My thigh muscles remained unusable for two days after that pack job. I learned later that the stiffened muscles were probably the results of the anesthetic from the appendix surgery I had had just a week before coming on the trip. Now after carrying a full hind quarter of a big bull elk (100+ pounds) up the mountain, the pack job was taking it toll on me.
We are all carrying something in life. Some have gotten used to carrying the weight and you can't really even notice. Others carry the weight that makes them visibly struggle. The burdens we carry will make life way harder than it has to be. I'm no longer talking about a physical weight but instead a burden of sin and guilt.
If we are children of God and we are still carrying a burden of guilt, of any kind, we are struggling under a weight that we don't need to carry. When this is happening we need to realize that our sin is not bigger, is not more powerful, than what Jesus did for us on the cross. The price He paid lifted every weight, every burden of sin and shame from us.
What I've come to realize is that when we are shaky on the idea that we are forgiven, we have absolutely nothing to offer anyone. Nothing. If we can't allow ourselves to be freed from our past burdens, we can't help anyone else to be released from their burdens.
I've found that now, years after I started packing elk out on my back, I can feel the results on my choices I made as a young man. The damage that was done because of decisions made. The burdens from years ago come back and hurt my back, off and on. The damage I did to it years ago effects my life today. Our sinful decisions from years before can do the same to us. The pain will continue to try to work it's way in, we must continually remember that Jesus paid the price for all our sins, past present and future. When we feel that pain creeping back into life we need to remember that Jesus died to remove it all.
An old hymn that I recall from my childhood was written by the Gaithers... "Burdens are Lifted at Calvary." It's so true. All of our burdens of sin, guilt and selfishness were lifted off our backs 2000+ years ago on the cross. They were all put on the shoulders of Jesus.
Psalms 55:22
Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.
If you are carrying around the weight of your past, throw it off, lay it down, refuse to carry it one minute longer. The debt has been paid. Remember, Burdens are Lifted at Calvary.
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