Not Burdensome

CS Lewis says, "the law sometimes reminds us of a dentist's drill rather than the honey and gold that the Bible compares it to."

This should not be! God's commands should be guideposts on our way, not chains on our hands and feet. "The Precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart" Psalm 19:8. If God's commands seem tedious, we need to identify that kind of thinking as emanating from the flesh. 1 John 5:3 says, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome."

As we grow in our relationship with The Lord, it is easy to reason out obedience to his commands only to those we can understand. We can also read the bible and think wrongly about all God has directed. What is for us, today? What was appropriated only to Israel as a Nation from a historical perspective? And our eyes roll up in our heads. We can get bogged down in the weeds, easily. This could add to the confusion that what God wants from us is unreasonable, difficult or burdensome. We could also be immature, and not understand when we are fighting against God's commands because we just want what we want. We aren't hating what God hates, or loving what God loves. That could reveal we love the system of this world more than Believers should, 1 John 2:15-17.

Even the mature Believer can find themselves recalcitrant at times in relation to the things God commands of His children. No one is far from sin, or the rejection of the sweet Honey of God's Words. Yet, the mature should be easily disciplined and come to repentance. We should all take the advice, not to surrender, or give ear to the knock of sin that desires to burden us and intimate a heaviness in relation to what God calls us to.

As God's New Natured children we can know His Word is, "more to be desired than gold... sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honey comb." We know that God does not lie. If He has declared this, then we are the problem if we see it differently. Ask yourself, "is it possible that 'sin' or 'the flesh' knows, "by (his commands) them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward" and those truths are the prosperity, both, 'sin' and 'the flesh,' fear for the sake of losing power? When we confront that possibility, we can Praise the Lord and make the choice to walk by the Spirit who infuses our spirit towards victory, joy and peace as we "abide!"

We don't need to fall prey to the lies of the old nature telling us, "God's commands are a burden. He cannot really expect you to obey." The joy of obedience can become much more tangible. We reap the rewards of it, as we heed the warnings of what God has said, without burden.