Today’s Reading:
Matthew 11
1 Peter 5
Luke 12
What is the value of your soul to God? Could your worth be defined by any amount of money? God doesn’t abandon or forget even the small sparrow he has made. How then could he forget or abandon you? What about the seemingly minor issues of your life? Do they matter to God? Of course they do! So you never need to worry, for you are more valuable to God than anything else in this world.
Luke 12:6-7 TPT
I heard The Spirit of the Lord say,
My eyes are on the sparrow. I see your heart. I see the contents of it. I see the places that are tender and bring pain when touched. I know what lights you up, what excites you and delights you. I know what makes you tick. I made you. You are beautiful, inside and out. You are wonderfully and perfectly made. Put your trust in Me. Put the full weight of your confidence and trust in Me. I will give you rest. As you put your confidence and trust in Me, you will notice the weight of what you have been carrying seems to lighten and even slip off of your shoulders. You were not made to carry this heavy load by yourself. You were meant to do it in partnership with Me. Put all of your cards and all of your chips on the table. Entrust them all to Me.
“Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Come to me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in me. For all that I require of you will be pleasant and easy to bear.”
Matthew 11:28-30 TPT
The way you have been living is heavy and hectic and hard. Push it all to the center of the table. Entrust it all to Me, and pick up My joy in its place. My joy. I desire for My joy to radiate through you, to lift you, encourage you and bring that buoyancy back into your life. Some of you haven’t even ever lived with that buoyancy. You never made it yours. Pick up My joy. Put it on. Sit with it, and wear it out and around. Let My joy become your new you. It’s not a mask to wear. It’s My love and light and lightness shining through you. See the difference that makes? When you’re not carrying around the full weight of all of those responsibilities, some that are yours and some that are borrowed? Trust in Me. Allow Me to lead you, to shoulder the weight of this. Allow Me to sift through the pile and release some completely from your load. You’ll have to let go. But you were made for running wild and free. You were not made to be a beast of burden.
Pour out all your worries and stress upon him and leave them there, for he always tenderly cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7 TPT
These are heavy days. Entrust your load to Me. Exchange it for My joy, and be a beautiful beacon of difference, of love and purity out there. Be something so different from what you have been and what everyone else is. Be buoyant with My joy in the midst of it all. Live like one whose God cares for them and carries them. I have not called you to live in drudgery and under the weight of these many things. I have made you to run beautifully and wonderfully free.
How to Respond
- Sit with the Lord. Write down all of the responsibilities and concerns that have been weighing you down. And then push them across the table to Him. Let Him bear the weight, and pick up His joy in exchange.
- Pray, Holy Spirit, You lead me into all truth. Show me the truth of what I’m carrying and owning that is not for me to bear. Help me to get rid of what I need to get rid of and to roll the burden of what is for me onto Your very capable shoulders. I want to run free. I want to be filled with Your super-abundant joy and be a beacon of difference to the world around me.
- Declare, I will not be grieved. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The Lord is my shield and my salvation, whom or what shall I fear? I cast all of my cares on the Lord, because He cares for me.
- Decree, I will stop carrying around the weight of the world on my shoulders. I will honestly survey it all with the Lord, leaving behind what must be left and giving to Him what is mine to carry. I will exchange this weight for the Lord’s joy and be one whose light shines brightly and life draws people to the goodness and freedom of the Lord Jesus.
For more encouragement from Glory & the New Wine, check out the post from this day in years past:
2023: The Lord’s Words Are Fighting Words
2022: Be Bold & Brave in the Waiting
2021: The Lord is Bringing Great Joy to His People & Confusing the Camp of the Enemy
