Carrying Another’s Burden
Written By: Ahava  
 
Philippians 1:3-6
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ.
 
There are many good things in this scripture. It speaks of remembering loved ones in prayer. It speaks of possessing joy and being confident. It speaks of the faithfulness of God to bring you unto completion. But none of those words caught my attention except the two words that stood out to me, “carry it”. 
  
The definition of the word carry is "To continue without halting. Enable you to endure.
Assist you in going the distance. To be actively engaged in the journey."
Carry means to hold or to bear.

God is actively engaged in every area of your life.
 
When one takes a journey they may not realize the distance when starting out. It appears quite easy when reading the map but the actual course has many twists and turns that could not be known by reading a piece of paper.

Once on the road, the experience becomes reality. It only takes one wrong turn to get lost. It only takes one flat tire to delay. It only takes one accident to jam up the road for hours.

Along the road there are hitchhikers, all asking for assistance to get to where they are going. What do you do? You do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Is it easy? The answer is no.
 
The bible tells us to “bear one another’s burdens." It is difficult to bear another’s burden when you have your own to bear. What do you do? You pick up the burden and carry it for another. Do you remember when Jesus fell and could not pick up the cross? Someone else stepped in and carried the cross for Him.
 
We never carry the burdens of other people even though we think we do. The Holy Spirit always bears us up and carries us through while we are helping others.

In reality, other people just lean on us when they’ve reached the end of their own strength. We bear them up by picking up their cross and helping them get to where they need to be. When we assist others, we are allowing them to lean upon us while the Lord carries us both to achieve the necessary task to deliver our sister or brother. 

No person has the strength to continually carry another’s burden. We can only allow them a “season of leaning upon us” and then we must release them to continue on their own as we ourselves continue on our own journey.
 
Only God has the strength and ability to be the carrier. We are servants of God called to allow others to lean upon us in their time of need and then we must continue our own journey.
 
When others lean upon us – we will become tired in the natural. But one thing I know for sure is that the Lord will get beneath you, bear you up in His arms and carry you through to completion.

God bear you up in your mission.

Sincerely,
Ahava