Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin. (Deut. 9:27)
CARRIE KNEW HER SON had been making poor choices recently. He was hanging around the wrong crowd and getting involved in potentially dangerous situations. She also feared he was slipping further and further away from a relationship with God and a connection with his family. As the clock read 2:00 a.m., there was still no sound of him home yet, safe in his bed. Carrie got up from the living room chair and went to his room. With the lights off, she lay in his bed and prayed. She cried out to God for protection, guidance, and illumination for nearly two hours before she heard the front door opening slowly.
Moses desperately interceded on behalf of the Israelites. Impatient from waiting on Moses’ return from the mountain, the children of Israel had Aaron forge a golden calf for them to worship. It would have been easy to condemn them, but instead Moses cried out on their behalf. He begged God to remember his people. In doing so, he set a powerful example of intercession.
Carrying another’s burdens, especially their rebellion, is the difficult and important task of the Christian life. The call on each one of us is to help others along the way, especially when they cannot help themselves or are too stubborn to seek help.
Contemplate whose burden you can carry before the Lord in this new year.
Mark Moore is the spiritual formation pastor at Faith Legacy Church in Sacramento, California, and an auxiliary professor at William Jessup University.
© 2019 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
