Is it hard work to lay down a heavy burden? No one will say that it is. Yet it is as hard to do that as to become a Christian; for a Christian is simply one who has yielded to the Lord--one who has laid upon Him the burden he was carrying.
The Lord invites all to cast their burdens upon Him. "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you." (Psalm 55:22)
Your burden is yourself. Before a person knows the Lord, he tries to sustain himself; he tries to hold himself up, as if he were self-existent and capable of maintaining his existence successfully against all the opposing forces around him. He tries to lift himself by himself, and, strangely enough, he imagines at times that he is succeeding. The plane of spiritual truth is, to the natural eye, full of optical illusions.
The effort to do this imposes a heavy burden of care, anxiety, disappointment, and conscious guilt. It is too heavy for anyone but the Lord to carry. The Lord knows this, and so invites all persons to give up their burdens to Him. He has made himself the burden-bearer.
Yet such is the perverting and blinding power of sin upon the natural mind that it seems a great deal harder to lay the burden down than to carry it! So men refuse to accept the Lord's invitation and give Him their burdens, as being too hard a thing for them to do! "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you." (Psalm 55:22)
Cast yourself upon Him, and you become a Christian, for thereby you show that you believe and trust Him. There is rest and happiness for all who will do this. "Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, you righteous: and shout for joy, all you that are upright in heart." (Psalm 32:11)--Present Truth, April 4, 1895--Original title: Front Page--Psalm 55:22.