Sometimes we try to carry tomorrow, next week, and every “what if” all at once. God never asked us to carry everything alone.
Sweet friend, I want to start today with a question that I hope you will really sit with before you read another word.
What are you carrying right now?
Not the stuff on your to-do list — though I know that list is probably longer than any one person should reasonably be expected to manage. I mean the other stuff. The invisible stuff. The weight that doesn’t show up on any list but somehow makes everything heavier.
Take a moment. Really think about it.
Maybe it’s a relationship that has been strained for so long you can barely remember what easy felt like. Maybe it’s a health situation — yours or someone you love — that has been sitting on your chest like a stone for weeks or months or longer. Maybe it’s financial pressure that follows you from morning to night, whispering all its worst case scenarios in your ear every time things get quiet.
Maybe it’s the weight of being needed by everyone around you while quietly wondering who is going to show up for you. The exhaustion of being the strong one, the steady one, the one everyone else leans on — while you are running on fumes and holding yourself together with nothing but sheer determination and cold coffee.
Maybe it’s the fear. That particular, specific, deeply personal fear that visits you in the dark hours when the house is quiet and your defenses are down and your mind starts playing all those terrible “what if” games that never end well.
Whatever it is — I see you carrying it. And today I want to say something to you that I mean with every single part of my heart:
You were never meant to carry all of that alone.
The Weight We Were Never Designed to Hold
Here is something I have been thinking about a lot lately.
We were not designed to carry the weight of the future.
Our minds, our hearts, our nervous systems — they were designed to handle today. This moment. What is right in front of us right now. But somewhere along the way most of us developed this exhausting habit of picking up tomorrow’s burdens before today is even finished. We carry next week’s problems while we are still in the middle of Monday. We worry about December in the middle of May. We catastrophize about things that haven’t happened yet and may never happen at all.
And so we end up walking through our days bent under the weight of a load that is three times heavier than it needs to be — because we are carrying today AND tomorrow AND next week AND every possible worst case scenario all at the same time.
No wonder we are tired, sweet friend. That is an impossible load for any human heart to bear.
The technical term for this is anxiety. But I think at its root it is really something else entirely. I think it is a trust issue. Not a character flaw — not something to be ashamed of — but a gentle invitation from God to loosen our grip on the things we were never meant to control in the first place.
What Jesus Actually Said
I want to share a verse with you today that I have come back to more times than I can count. You have probably heard it before — maybe many times. But I want you to read it today like it is the very first time. Because I think sometimes the most familiar words are the ones we most need to really hear.
Matthew 11:28-30:
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Sweet friend, I want to walk through this slowly because there is so much here.
“Come to Me.”
Not “get yourself together and then come.” Not “figure out how to fix it and then come.” Not “carry it a little longer until you have earned the right to rest.” Just — come. As you are. Right now. In the middle of the mess, in the middle of the worry, in the middle of the exhaustion. Come.
That word is one of the most gracious, most gentle, most wide-open invitations in all of Scripture. There is no prerequisite. There is no required state of having it together. The only requirement is that you come.
“All you who are weary and burdened.”
Not the strong ones. Not the ones who have figured it out. The weary ones. The burdened ones. The ones who are running on empty and carrying too much and desperately need someone to tell them it is okay to set it down.
That is you, sweet friend. That is the exact person Jesus is talking to in this verse. Not someone else. You.
“And I will give you rest.”
Not “I might give you rest.” Not “I will give you rest once you prove you have tried hard enough.” I will give you rest. It is a promise. An unconditional, no-fine-print, absolutely-means-what-it-says promise from the One who has never broken a single promise He has ever made.
The Difference Between Carrying and Trusting
Now here is where I want to be really honest with you, because I think this is where so many of us get stuck.
We know we are supposed to give our burdens to God. We have read the verse. We have said the prayer. We have genuinely, sincerely meant it when we whispered “Lord, I give this to You.”
And then twenty minutes later we picked it right back up again.
Can you relate to that? Because I absolutely can. More times than I would like to admit.
And for a long time I felt guilty about that. Like there was something wrong with my faith because I couldn’t seem to actually leave my burdens at God’s feet without going back to collect them again. Like real Christians — faithful Christians — were somehow able to just hand things over to God and walk away completely unbothered.
But here is what I have learned, slowly and imperfectly, over years of walking with God through hard seasons:
Giving your burdens to God is not a one-time event. It is a practice. A daily — sometimes hourly — choice to keep releasing the things you keep wanting to take back.
And God is not frustrated with you every time you reach for it again. He is not sitting up in heaven rolling His eyes and thinking “we have been through this, why does she keep picking that back up?”
He is patient. He is gentle. He is the most understanding Being in the entire universe. And every single time you bring that burden back to Him — whether it is for the second time or the fiftieth time — He receives it with the same grace and the same love and the same “I’ve got this, you can let go” that He had the very first time.
Trusting God is not a destination. It is a direction. And every time you choose to hand something over instead of clutching it tighter, you are moving in the right direction. That is enough. That is more than enough. 🌸
The Things We Try to Control
Let me ask you something else today — and this one might sting just a little, but I’m asking it with so much love.
How much of what you are carrying is actually yours to carry?
Because here is something I have noticed in my own life and in the lives of so many women I know and love — a lot of what we carry is not actually ours. We pick up other people’s problems and carry them as our own. We take responsibility for other people’s emotions and choices and outcomes. We exhaust ourselves trying to control situations and relationships and futures that are fundamentally, completely outside of our control.
And we do it because we love. Because we care. Because the thought of something going wrong for the people we love is genuinely unbearable to us.
But sweet friend — taking on burdens that belong to someone else, or to God, doesn’t actually help anyone. It just depletes you. And a depleted you is less able to show up with the love and the presence and the grace that the people in your life actually need from you.
There is a prayer that I have found enormously helpful in my own life when I am trying to figure out what is mine to carry and what is not. It goes something like this:
“Lord, show me what is mine to do today. And help me release everything else into Your hands.”
That’s it. Simple. But it has changed so many of my days, because it reminds me that I am not responsible for everything — only for the things God has specifically asked of me today. Everything else? That is His territory. And He is very, very capable of handling it without my help.
Practical Ways to Put It Down
I know that “give it to God” can sometimes feel like beautiful but vague advice. So I want to give you some practical, tangible things you can actually do today to begin releasing the load you have been carrying.
Write it down and then pray over it. There is something powerful about getting your burdens out of your head and onto paper. Write down everything you are worried about — every fear, every uncertainty, every “what if” — and then pray over that list specifically. Name each one. Hand each one to God by name. And when you are done, fold the paper up, put it in a drawer or a Bible, and leave it there as a physical act of surrender.
Create a “God’s list” in your journal. Divide a page in two. On one side write “My list” — the things that are genuinely yours to do today. On the other side write “God’s list” — everything else. Every time you catch yourself worrying about something on God’s list, literally point to it and say “that one is Yours, Lord.”
Breathe and release. When anxiety spikes and the weight feels crushing, try this simple practice. Take a slow deep breath in and as you exhale say — out loud if possible — “I release this to You, God.” Do it as many times as you need to. Your nervous system will begin to respond to this over time, associating that exhale with genuine release.
Talk to someone. Sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is let another person help us carry what feels too heavy. A trusted friend, a pastor, a counselor — asking for help is not weakness. It is wisdom. God very often sends us the help we need through the people He has placed in our lives.
When the Load Feels Impossibly Heavy
Sweet friend, I want to speak directly to the ones who are carrying something really, genuinely heavy right now. Not just the ordinary everyday weight of a full life — but something that feels crushing. Something that has been going on for a long time and shows no sign of letting up. Something that has brought you to your knees more times than you can count.
I am not going to tell you that everything is going to be okay in the way you are hoping for. I don’t know that. Only God knows that.
But here is what I do know. With complete certainty. With every part of my faith:
God sees what you are carrying. He has not looked away. He has not forgotten. He is not indifferent to your pain.
Psalm 34:18 says “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Close, sweet friend. Not far away. Not watching from a distance. Close. Right there. Right in the middle of the crushing weight of whatever you are going through.
And He is not just close — He is actively, tenderly, personally present with you in it. He is the God who counts your tears. The God who knows the number of hairs on your head. The God who sees every sleepless night and every brave morning and every moment of quiet, invisible courage.
You are not alone in this. You have never been alone in this. And no matter how heavy it gets — He can carry what you cannot. 💜
An Invitation for Today
Before you close this post and step back into everything your day is asking of you, I want to leave you with one simple invitation.
Right now — not later, not when you have more time, right now — I want you to close your eyes, take one slow breath, and picture yourself holding out your hands with everything you have been carrying piled up in them.
All of it. Every worry. Every fear. Every “what if.” Every burden that has been bowing you down.
And then picture Jesus — gentle, unhurried, completely unshocked by the size of the pile — reaching out and taking it from you. All of it. Every single piece.
And hear Him say — because He means it, sweet friend, He truly means it —
“I’ve got this. You can let go now. I’ve had it all along.”
That is the truth. That has always been the truth.
You don’t have to carry it all. You never did. 💜
With so much love, Marilyn Finding Life’s Magic
Come find our little faith-filled community on Instagram at @findinglifesmagic and visit us every single day for fresh encouragement at findinglifesmagic.net — because you deserve a place where you can always put the weight down and just breathe. And if you are looking for a little everyday reminder of how loved and held you truly are, come browse our shop at etsy.com/shop/findinglifesmagic 🌸✨