The Burden of Prayer

I've always been people oriented.  I have always wanted to do the best for other people.  I have a tendency to feel empathy for others that I hardly know.  My heart aches with other people. When someone is greatly troubled, I am greatly troubled too.  

If it were up to me, I would take all the bad things away from the world, just so everyone else didn't have to deal with them. I couldn't even begin to count how many times I wished I could take a horrible situation away from someone else so they could be happy and a peace.  Even if that meant that I would have to deal with that situation myself.  

So prayer for others comes sort of easy for me.  I tend to pray for others far more than I pray for myself.  Because I've seen the power of prayer from an honest, genuine, broken heart.  And my heart is most often broken for others.  

But constant intersession for others can start to wear on a girl.  If I'm not careful, burden upon burden can start to pile on.  

For the girl in my class who looked teary eyed.  For my friend whom I've drifted from, but can still tell she's hurting.  For my friend who is stoic, but still letting on that he's bothered.  For the man, sitting on the street, waiting for a stranger's kindness. For a girl in an orphanage miles and miles away, wanting to be loved.  For the anonymous guy online, commenting in hatred to boost his own esteem.  For my father when he's sick.  For my mother as she's weary. For my sister as she's stressed out.  For my roommate as we talk about our lives.  For my unsaved friends who are lost in the darkness.  For a school campus full of students searching through the dark, trying to convince themselves they know what's going on, but knowing they're floundering.  

The list can go on and on and on and on.  

Sometimes, I get so caught up in praying for other's burdens, that I don't realize I'm taking them on myself.  But that is not what God calls us to do.  He calls us not to take the weight off of others' shoulders ourselves, but to show them how to exchange their burden for His:

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." - Matthew 11:28-30

It's something I'm still learning, something God still has to remind me of.  Old habits die hard, they say.