You know that amazed feeling you get when a scripture you know well is preached to a whole new understanding?  

Well, that happened recently when I visited the church where a dear friend is the pastor.  I think the Holy Spirit gave me the idea to go because the sermon was meant for me.  

The passage was Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the prophetic telling of Christ suffering and dying for us.  I’ve heard it preached many times and I’ve read it several times on my own as well, but this time it held a new message, a personal one.  

The first part of verse four of Chapter 53 says,  “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows”.  This day I heard, He bore my griefs and carried my sorrows. He not only looked forward in time to take my sin away (v.5), He also saw all the grief and sorrow that my life would include and He volunteered to carry it for me.

I’ve been trying to carry the sorrow and grief of many terrible losses in my life, yet all the while He carried them for me long ago.  How heavy, the cross He carried, must have been. The wood alone would have been heavy, especially after the merciless beating He’d just received.  Yet, added to that, was not only my sin, grief, and sorrow, but that of the whole world, then and forever.   – Let that set for moment.

The pastor said something else that really hit home with me, “Our shoulders were not made to carry such a load, His were”.  It is no wonder my shoulders hurt and my soul is tired from the huge burden it has been struggling to carry for quite a long time now.  I left the service that morning a much lighter woman.

Somehow I don’t think I’m the only one who tries to do this on her own.  My prayer for you today dear one, is that you would relinquish your load of grief and sorrows to the One who came to carry them for you.  Let today be the day.

Please share this post with someone you know and love who might need to hear this message.