False burden
Responsibility God has not entrusted to someone
Point for discernment
The Hammonds describe the FALSE BURDEN group: false burden, false responsibility, and false compassion. This concerns taking on responsibility God has not entrusted to a person and trying to rescue others in a way that leads to compulsion, control, and overload.
Present pattern
A compulsion to rescue everyone, responsibility for other people's decisions and emotions, inability to rest without guilt, constantly taking on other people's problems, and the conviction: “If I don't do it, everything will fall apart.”
Possible root
The Hammonds' list does not identify a single root. Fear, false guilt, rejection, the need to be needed, excessive responsibility learned at home, and control concealed beneath help are matters for discernment.
Impact
Overload, loss of peace and boundaries, neglect of one's own duties, controlling others, and relationships based on dependence and guilt.
Discernment without accusation
Distinguish responsibility given by God from a burden taken on without his guidance. Setting a safe boundary is not a lack of love; nor should a person threatened by violence be left unprotected.
Spiritual response
Name the burdens that have been taken on; entrust people and their decisions to Jesus; renounce the spirit of false burden, false responsibility, false compassion, control, and false guilt; receive Christ's yoke, peace, and appropriate boundaries; help only to the extent that God actually leads.
Sources
Sources: Frank and Ida Mae Hammond, “Pigs in the Parlor” — FALSE BURDEN; Mt 11:28–30; Gal 6:2,5.