Episode #234 How God Carries You Through the Hardest Days – Small Steps, Big Faith

Hey friends, it's Jen. Welcome to this episode of Good God Talks. Today we're talking about letting God carry us and carry the heavy things that you're carrying right now, in this moment, in your daily life.

Recently I've been talking with God about Psalm 68:19, and this conversation with him came about because I was asking God to show me ways that he is my good, loving, caring father.

And I'm going to read this verse for you today in a few different Bible translations starting from the NIV. And it says,

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” (Psalm 68:19 NIV)

Now the concept of God bearing my burden wasn't new to me, but I thought about it in a new way as I read this verse and the reason for that is I tend to think of me Casting all my burdens at God's feet like he leaves them there in 1 Peter 5:7 tells us that we can cast all our anxieties on him because he cares for us. And the visual that I have is me just taking those cares and taking those burdens and laying them down at God's feet and him leaving them there, which honestly probably is true some of the time. Sometimes I carry burdens that don't need to be carried.

But as I was reading, the visual I got was of our God who daily bears our burdens.

As in he carries them for us.

And that gave me a different picture of God of my Savior daily carrying the things that are burdensome to me. So as I'm talking with God about this and I'm asking him to show me how he is my good father and bring new insights to me about how he is this way in his care for me, I then decide I want to look at this verse in a different translation.

And so I go to the New Living translation. Which if you've been around the podcast for a little bit, you know, that's one of my go to versions right now I love the everyday language it puts scripture in, and the New Living Translation says:

“Praise the Lord; praise God our savior! For each day he carries us in his arms.” (Psalm 68:19 NLT)

Well that gave me a whole different picture not just my burdens that God daily carries, but Me, that he daily carries in his arms. The visual of him holding me close, of not just carrying the things that are too heavy for me but carrying me because sometimes I can feel too heavy for me.

Sometimes I need my good father to swoop me up, to pick me up in his loving arms and to carry me through the circumstances of the day.

I went to the New King James Version, and it says,

“Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!” (Psalm 68:19 NKJV)

Blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation.

So we're talking about the same verse here, just translated from the original language in different ways.

And the visual that it gave me here is not just God carrying my burdens and not just God carrying me, but daily loading me up with positive benefits. Because he is the Lord, my savior, the God of my salvation.

It's been weeks since I first started looking at this one little verse, and I keep going back to God because there are some days I really need to notice and feel and trust him to carry my burdens. And there are other days when I'm sick or I'm tired, or I'm overwhelmed, and I need him to carry me.

And even still, there are days when I can notice him loading me up with his benefits, with his presence. active and noticeable in my day with his peace beyond understanding, with expressions of his love and care that I desperately need. And he shows up with them.

This brings wonder in routine moments for me, because any moment gets to be a moment where we experience God like he tells us he is.

And so we're keeping the episode today short and sweet, and we're inviting God to talk with us more about this. And my encouragement to you is don't just take the insight that he's given me and say, okay, that's, that's good enough. I can take that and be encouraged.

Ask him what he wants to show you.

Ask him to talk with you personally and specifically about what this verse looks like on display in your life, because I promise you as his child, this verse is on display in your life.

And so here's the question that you can take to him:

God, please show me what something you carried for me yesterday, and what do you offer to carry today?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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