The bag of rocks

Too many people go through life carrying loads they can scarcely bear. I have thought about this a great deal. Think with me as we talk about this today.

I am a word picture kind of person, so I tend to think that way as well. I suppose because of this way of thinking, I came up with an analogy of what I believe life is like for most, if not all of us.

When we become believers, the devil himself hands us a bag. Notice that it is the devil who hands us the bag and not God. Many believers seem to have the idea that it is God who hands out the bags. It is not.

The bag is a rock collecting bag. Once we receive the bag, we immediately begin collecting rocks. Most are not big rocks. They are usually small, even pebbles in some cases. Others are larger and yet we put each into our bag.

Now I know that some of you probably already can understand what I mean by the bag and rocks, but for the rest of us, let me explain:

Let’s call the bag, “the bag of burdens”. It is a bag we are given in which we collect all the things that are burdens to carry. Some are about the many guilts that only we and God know about. Others are bitternesses, resentments, and grudges held against others. Still others are thoughts that nag us about what we could have or should have done. Many are simply our self-imposed weights that we feel we should have to carry. They are the result of our own self-loathing and false guilts about things for which we really have no reason to feel guilt.

The rocks are all these burdens. Their sizes are not logically determined. Some that we pick up in our determination to do what it right about our sinful selves are much larger than they should be in reality. Others are miniscule in comparison to what they really ought to be. Many carry much more weight than size. All go in the bag.

At first, picking up the pebbles and little stones is not a bother to us. We feel like it is just a cross we must bear, but the cross is not that heavy, so we pay little attention.

After a short while, the bag begins to get heavy. We slump under its weight. We struggle to carry it and even lose sleep considering it. Eventually we cannot carry it, so we begin to drag the bag. We remain determined in our desire to please God by carrying, and now dragging, the bag. Finally we can no longer even drag the bag along. Our path has hit a wall and we can make no further progress forward. How can we possibly please God?

All of this is a lie. It has nothing to do with God. The lie (and the bag) has come from Satan, the devil, our mortal enemy. He wants us to labor under the weight of the bag. He gleefully watches as we finally succumb to the heavy weight of all the pebbles, stones, rocks, and even boulders.

Is this you today? Are you struggling under the weight? Perhaps you have reached the point of no further forward progress. The solution is surprisingly simple: Give the bag to God. Let Him carry your load. He wants to. But only you can give it to Him. He will not take it from you. If you give him your bag, the load will lift and you will find yourself able to have peace and joy. Life will once again become what God intended.

One warning: the bag will not go away. Once issued, it will always remain. However, the good news is that we can simply carry the bag around with nothing in it. Every pebble, every large rock we can hand over to God and let Him carry the burden. He said in His promises to us, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for us” (I Pet. 5:7). Give the heavy bag to Him, and let Him carry your burdens. Jesus said we could cast all of our cares on him because he cares for us! These words were written to the suffering believers in the early church who were experiencing suffering and persecution, not because they were doing anything wrong. They were simply living out their faith. Peter wanted them to know that no matter what any of us are going through, all of our worries and anxieties (the stones and rocks) can be thrown on the Lord, because He cares for us. David encouraged the same type of commitment in Psalm 55:22 when he said, “Throw your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you.” Sustain means hold you up so you will not fall. It means hold you up over time.

Give Him your bag. Let go. You may need help leaving it and you may need to give it to Him more than once, maybe many times. God does not want you to carry the load. He wants to help. Let him!