Carrying the Weaker Brother's Burdens...

I just got finished listening to last week’s sermon online and am waiting for this week’s to be posted so I can listen to that one also. The recording is really a blessing when I’m in teaching the kids; yet don’t want to miss out on being fed. As I listen I found I have to take notes to keep my mind from wandering. Here are a few things that came to mind as I listened to carrying the weaker brother’s burdens…
• Do I want others to bear my burdens?
• Christ, here on earth, did not please Himself, but obeyed the Father by seeking the Holy Spirit. (that’s a hard concept to get your mind around…)
• Christ’s goal on earth was to win the lost, not please the people.
• There is no truth or light in the world’s group.
• Every reason Christ was hated was because of His obedience to the Father’s will and His holiness.
• God chases me to show me His truth and lavish His love on me.
• When I allow Him to meet with me, my spirit will be lifted.
• We leak truth…we have to be continually taught the same truths we have already been taught because they leak out. It may have been something we’ve know our whole life, but it must continually be reiterated.
• God comes to us gently, never harshly. He teaches me by love! His discipline is always out of love and never harshness. It’s because of His great love that He gave up His only Son so why then would He treat us with anything but the love that caused Him to give up His Son? Love is His motivator, His way, His being.
• The hope I have in Christ eliminates fear. I must learn to walk and live my life in this truth!
• God is, by nature, an encourager!
• We are required to hold up the weaker brother and bear their burdens because it is what Christ does for us and He is the ultimate example in the way we are to live our lives. We don’t do it out of obligation, but out of love, just as Christ did and does for us.
These are some points for me to ponder through this next week. I pray that I am not this weaker brother that others must come along and bear up, but I don’t know that I would consider me the stronger brother either. I think they mean weak in the flesh, the sin nature, and basically a baby in Christ. I have been a Christian for so long now, however, I feel like there is so much still for me to learn and that I’m not as mature as I should be in Him. The main thing I will focus on is that the hope I have in Him takes away my fears, because while I “know” this, I’m not living it. This will be my prayer for the week, that I may trust in the hope that He has given and have my fears relieved.

Melissa Fitzwilliam