What must you do before others in the body of Christ can help you bear a heavy burden?

In what sense is heart-breaking conviction of sin a demonstration of God’s grace toward you?

After 76 years of life as a Christ-follower and over 55 years in vocational ministry, I’ve learned a few things through trial and error, and more by regularly delving into God’s Word. I’ll cover two inisights I wish I had learned and applied earlier in life.

 

Requirement for Burden Bearing

Galatians 6:2 is familiar to most Christians: “Bear one another’s burdens and fulfill the law of Christ.”

The term translated burden stemmed from the shipping industry. It referred to a crushing wieght, an overload. Ships carried heavy logs and other building materials along the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, taking supplies for building projects from Lebanon to Israel. If the load exceeded the weight limit, the boat sank, spilling cargo into the sea. Similarly, we get overloaded, bearing the excessive weight of physical suffering, pain over a loved one who’s estranged from us, or depression that leaves us listless and demotivated. God never intended for us to bear all such weight ourselves.

Yet there’s a prerequisite before others in the body of Christ can help bear our burdens.

Unless I self-reveal, informing a close friend or members of a small group of my struggle, others can’t comfort me or intercede to God for me. If pride keeps me tight-lipped and I worry too much about how other believers will perceive me, I’ll  forego the blessing of another’s intervention. And I’ll rob someone from exercising a ministry of encouragement that God intended for him or her.

Don’t pray for the Lord to help you, then refuse the help He wants to send through others.

He still incarnates His love! I couldn’t have survived severe depressive episodes without others who came alongside–because I finally called them!

When choosing to exercise transparency, be highly selective. Ask the Lord to give you the name of one or more mature persons to contact.

 

The Grace of Conviction

I recall a couple hours of excruciating emotional trauma and mental anguish, experienced one afternoon two decades ago. Pain pierced my heart and tears pooled on the carpet where I lay. It came on the heels of a prayer I had offered to God over a several week period: “Lord, don’t let me sin successfully. Please, break my heart because I’ve hurt You.”

He answered that prayer! While alone in the house, His Spirit exposed a recent pattern of sin. I began seeing it through His eyes. I threw myself on the floor, cried aloud to the Lord, my body convulsing as I confessed and pleaded for grace to sin less.

Later, I realized He had already demonstrated grace through the painful gift of conviction.

The pain of conviction is temporary and shows us our sin with greater clarity. Such conviction restrains our sinful impulses, preventing worse pain and more dreadful consequences that would result if we remained tethered to the sinful pattern.

I’m not referring to the ongoing despair of false guilt, when we feel unacceptable to God based on subpar spiritual performance. That’s a failure to grasp and appropriate His forgiveness. No, conviction is necessary but short-lived pain. Conviction hurts us temporarily and spawns repentance, then leads to a greater appreciation of the Lord’s gracious acceptance due to our faith in Christ’s payment for our sins. We worship HIm more when we heed conviction of sin.

I appreciate how Paul Tripp puts it:

Grace explodes on us with penetrating, heart-exposing light. Grace illumines our dark hallways and our dark corners. The Son of grace shines the light of His grace into the darkest recesses of our hearts, not as an act of vengeance or punishment, but as a move of forgiving, transforming and delivering grace. He dispels our self-inflicted darkness because He knows we cannot grieve what we do not see, we cannot confess what we have not grieved, and we cannot turn from what we haven’t confessed.

Dare you pray, “Lord, don’t let me sin successfully”?

_________

In my most recent book, Can You See the Cross from There? Grace and Grit for Sufferers and Sinners, I devote multiple chapters to the necessity of close fellowship wiith other Christians, as well as a chapter titled “Is Convicting Grace an Oxymoron?”  The link below takes you to more information about the book on my website, where you’ll also find a link for purchase on Amazon. I’m convinced you’ll find the Bible truths in the book practical and helpful.

Can You See the Cross from There?