1 00:00:02,680 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: Life Audio. Welcome to the Crosswalk devotional. We're glad to 2 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:19,240 Speaker 1: have you listening with us. Today's topic is a love 3 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:24,040 Speaker 1: that carries You. We'll return with the devotion after a 4 00:00:24,079 --> 00:00:41,480 Speaker 1: brief message from our sponsors. The kind of Love that 5 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 1: carries You Written and read by Sarah Fraser. By car 6 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:50,360 Speaker 1: flash the empty sign. I was almost out of gas, 7 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:54,040 Speaker 1: by heart, sighed the to do list for the day, 8 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: felt never ending. Life was really hard for our family 9 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:02,720 Speaker 1: during seasons of business. I found myself running like a 10 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:07,760 Speaker 1: car on an empty tank of gas. Hardships faced everyone. 11 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:15,280 Speaker 1: Maybe you are facing sickness, loneliness, grief, fear, or even 12 00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:21,000 Speaker 1: depression today. How do we continue to hold everything together 13 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 1: when we run out of energy? The beautiful truth of 14 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:28,680 Speaker 1: the Bible is that we do not keep running and 15 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:35,119 Speaker 1: running by ourselves. Spiritually, emotionally, and even physically. We are 16 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:39,319 Speaker 1: not asked to endure everything on our own. We are 17 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:45,320 Speaker 1: not alone. God's love comes with a promise a father 18 00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:49,160 Speaker 1: who carries In the Book of Deuteronomy, we read some 19 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:53,280 Speaker 1: of Moses's last words to the people. Before recounting the 20 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 1: laws and telling them how to live. Moses reminded them 21 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:01,400 Speaker 1: of God's love for them and you saw in the 22 00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:04,840 Speaker 1: wilderness how the Lord your God carried you as a 23 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:08,519 Speaker 1: man carries his son, all along the way you traveled 24 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:14,880 Speaker 1: until you reached this place. Deuteronomy one thirty one. Good 25 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:18,560 Speaker 1: fathers carry their sons because of their love for them. 26 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:22,840 Speaker 1: Sometimes human fathers fail. Maybe you didn't have a good 27 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:28,080 Speaker 1: father friend. If you are a Christian, God is your father. 28 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 1: This imagery is one that is woven throughout the entire Bible. 29 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:36,120 Speaker 1: A good father will care for and love his son. 30 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:39,800 Speaker 1: I can remember my husband carrying each of our children 31 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:43,320 Speaker 1: when they were young, up the stairs to bed each night. 32 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 1: This type of carrying we see here is one of 33 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:51,560 Speaker 1: deep and last in love. Notice that God carried the 34 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: people in the wilderness along a very uncertain road, no 35 00:02:56,639 --> 00:03:01,239 Speaker 1: matter what they faced famine, thirst, and enemy. Please, God 36 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: carried them each and every step. You and I have 37 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:07,919 Speaker 1: this comfort that God is our father will carry us 38 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:12,680 Speaker 1: through life. God isn't just there for guidance. He lifts 39 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:17,320 Speaker 1: us up and bears the weight of this life with us. 40 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:21,000 Speaker 1: When life gets too heavy, God carries us like a 41 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: father carried for a lifetime. Not only does God's love 42 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:32,640 Speaker 1: carry us, it does so throughout our entire lives. The 43 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:36,360 Speaker 1: prophet Isaiah warns the people about running to their idols 44 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 1: for safety. He says, I, meaning God will be the 45 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:45,640 Speaker 1: same until you're old age, and I will bear you 46 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:49,160 Speaker 1: up when you turn gray. I have made you, and 47 00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:52,480 Speaker 1: I will carry you. I will bear and rescue you 48 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:57,920 Speaker 1: Isaiah forty six four. Notice the time span from birth 49 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:03,400 Speaker 1: to old age to gray hairs. The older I get, 50 00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:06,280 Speaker 1: the more I realize that my strength from twenty years 51 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:09,440 Speaker 1: ago just isn't the same now that I'm in my forties. 52 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:13,040 Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what our physical bodies are capable of. 53 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:16,679 Speaker 1: God's love is a love that lasts throughout our whole life. 54 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 1: God tells the Israelites, I have made you and carried you. 55 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:26,080 Speaker 1: No matter what happens, God will bear us up and 56 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:32,000 Speaker 1: rescue us. God's love is not seasonal or situational. It 57 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:36,279 Speaker 1: does not withdraw as we age. It never weakens or changes. 58 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:40,880 Speaker 1: The one who created us commits himself to carry us 59 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:47,920 Speaker 1: all the way through our life, carried now by Christ. 60 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:52,039 Speaker 1: The idea of God carrying us is not just in 61 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:55,360 Speaker 1: the Old Testament. In the New Testament we see this 62 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:59,320 Speaker 1: repeated as well. One of the most powerful examples of 63 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:03,320 Speaker 1: this is found in the Book of Colossians. Paul says 64 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:07,160 Speaker 1: that Christ is not just our savior, but our sustainer. 65 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:13,000 Speaker 1: For in Him Jesus, all things were created, things in 66 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:18,839 Speaker 1: heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers, 67 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:22,839 Speaker 1: or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through 68 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:27,360 Speaker 1: Him and for him. He is before all things, and 69 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:36,360 Speaker 1: in him all things hold together Colossians one sixteen through seventeen. 70 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:42,680 Speaker 1: Notice the phrase in him all things hold together. Jesus 71 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:46,599 Speaker 1: Christ is the reason the universe is still running. Christ 72 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:50,279 Speaker 1: is beside God on the throne in Heaven, keeping our 73 00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:55,320 Speaker 1: world going. He carries all of creation, but that also 74 00:05:55,880 --> 00:06:00,920 Speaker 1: means you and me. All things include you, me, and 75 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 1: the details of our lives. The power Christ has to 76 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:09,160 Speaker 1: sustain us is beyond our ability to understand. We can 77 00:06:09,279 --> 00:06:13,440 Speaker 1: rest you and I today that God's love carries us 78 00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:23,680 Speaker 1: personally as a father, patiently and powerfully intersecting faith and life. 79 00:06:23,839 --> 00:06:27,200 Speaker 1: Where might you have been trying to carry burdens. God 80 00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:31,480 Speaker 1: never intended you to bear alone. I want to encourage 81 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:34,919 Speaker 1: you today that God's love does not demand strength from us, 82 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:39,040 Speaker 1: It supplies us. You are not held together by your 83 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:46,200 Speaker 1: own effort, but by Christ. Additional reading Psalm sixty eight nineteen, 84 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:52,760 Speaker 1: Psalm fifty five twenty two, Matthew eleven twenty eight through thirty, 85 00:06:53,880 --> 00:07:02,479 Speaker 1: Hebrews thirteen five. The Crosswalk Devotional is a production of 86 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:06,240 Speaker 1: Life Audio and Salem Media. If you liked what you 87 00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:09,000 Speaker 1: heard today, please take a second to rate and review 88 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:12,320 Speaker 1: this podcast in your favorite podcast app so that more 89 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:16,520 Speaker 1: listeners like you can find the show. For more faith 90 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:28,760 Speaker 1: filled inspirational podcasts, visit us at lifeaudio dot com.