Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.  Psalm 55:22

What’s going on?  How are you doing?  What’s up?  These are frequently asked questions that in other times have generally found meaningless responses.  However, in our socially distant days, such questions often elicit heartfelt and heavy-laden answers.  During the early days of staying at home, congregation members and school parents were patient and gracious in their interactions with church workers.  Yet as days have given way to weeks and now months, frustrated and weary saints have been less patient as they long for days without the fears and limitations that this pandemic have brought.  Pastors have been unable to find time for rest and refreshment as they try to find a balanced path forward between those who want the Church to return to worship without restrictions on one hand those who feel that any gathering of the saints is reckless.

The psalms are full of pleas by those who are overwhelmed by life and its heavy demands.  The psalmists cry out in weakness, anguish and even, at times, despair.  Yet an ever-faithful God hears the cries of His servants and grants them relief.  In the words of Psalm 55, our Lord invites us to cast our burdens upon Him with the assurance that He will sustain us.  Now is a time for us to remind one another of this precious promise.  In the midst of this crisis, my prayer is that our congregations would have elders who will speak words of comfort to their pastors as they point their shepherds to the One on whom we can cast our burdens.  I pray that our principals have school board members who seek not to afflict, but to bring the real good news of God’s faithfulness.  I pray for pastors to care for one another and reach out to their brother pastors who have isolated themselves.  What our congregations and schools need right now are leaders and servants who are proclaiming to one another the comfort and assurance that we have from our burden-bearing God.

“How are you?”  If you answer the question honestly, the response is probably going to be “Tired” or “Frustrated.”  That’s why we need others around us to share with us words of hope from a God who has a heart for those who are weak and heavy laden.  That’s why we need we share with one another the promises of a God who hears our pleas for mercy.  My prayer is that when someone asks you how you are that you can say, “Comforted” or “Hopeful” on account of our faithful God.

Prayer – O God, by the patient endurance of Your only-begotten Son You bear down the pride of the old enemy.  Help us to treasure rightly in our hearts what our Lord has borne for our sakes that, after His example, we may bear with patience those things that are adverse to us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen. 

Fraternally in Christ,

President Lee Hagan