Thursday Reflection December 10, 2020

by Shantavia Fullwood

Thursday Reflection

December 10, 2020

Carry each other’s burden

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2 NIV

In this chapter Paul is giving instructions to the Galatian Christians about how to live with each other as Spirit-powered people in Christ. In verse one of this chapter Paul teaches how to deal with someone caught in sin. It is not a place of condemnation, but one of assistance. The aim is to help that person to walk in the Spirit of God again.

Verse 2, our text for reflection, further emphasise this point. We should carry each other’s burden. A misconception that is held throughout life is that being a Christian means you will not have burdens. That is definitely not the case. We all have burdens to carry. We have so many different burdens carrying such as relationship challenges, financial challenges, emotional challenges, academic challenges, illness, work related challenges, challenges at home and with family, challenges with sin and temptation and the list goes on.

Here Paul encourages us to carry each other burden. This is instructive for a couple of reasons.

1) It shows love
Love is the fulfillment of the law. Galatians 5:14 says “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We are carrying out the mandate of Christ when we carry each other’s burden. We are showing love.

2) It gives support
When persons are overwhelmed with their burdens they become vulnerable, burdened, sad, lonely, abandoned etc. When we help to carry the burdens of others, it encourages them and remind them that they are not alone. You become a physical presence of support and a physical reminder of the presence of God.

We carry each other’s burden by being there. In some cases we cannot solve the problem, but our presence helps as we mentioned earlier. We carry each other’s burden by helping in whatever way we can, even if it is an inconvenience to us.

This is how we truly show the love of God. At this time many people are overwhelmed and burdened, let us help to carry some of those burdens to remind persons that God is present and will help.

Shalom

Christopher Euphfa