How to find peace by finally realizing who really is in charge
By Dean Collins
If you have a position of leadership, whether in the home, the church, your business, or somewhere else, then you know the tendency to assume you must figure everything out. Among leaders’ responsibilities is providing adequate finances for the family, the nonprofit, the business, or the town, state, or country. These are big responsibilities. But there’s more. Leaders set strategy and create plans. And then there are tax laws, legal challenges, insurance payments and claims, and risk management. Frankly, leaders can work all day and feel as if they haven’t solved anything. Yet we are never to flinch and always to carry on with our responsibility.
Carrying a lot of responsibility can lead some toward arrogance that suggests only you can figure things out, solve the problems, and save the day. The Psalms and countless other passages in scripture remind us that is not true. None of us has all the answers. No one person can know everything needed to adequately provide for every possible challenge we will face at work, at home, or in our volunteer service. We must learn the balance of working hard while placing the burdens and problems we face daily in the hands of one who can carry them.
Psalm 131, just three verses long, makes my point. I wrote about it yesterday, but I feel compelled to come back to it again today. The psalmist opened this psalm with these words: “O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” The admission that we are not fully capable to do it all and solve it all may sound like weakness in a culture that suggests we must figure it out and be the hero of our home, business, or church. But this confession is exactly the place where God calls us. It is in humility and surrender where the great transfer occurs. Only when we place the burden of our lives in the hands of God do we discover that God is more than enough to meet our needs.
God is more than enough to meet our needs.
The psalmist continued: “But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” Unfortunately, as we get older our memory fades, and we don’t actually remember the comfort of complete dependency on our parents, especially our mother’s care of us as infants. But as parents, grandparents, or from our view of children around us, we are reminded of the simplicity of a child’s life. The 3-year-old isn’t worried about filing an income tax return or how to make payroll. Even when the cupboard is bare, the small child isn’t worried about their next meal; they simply enjoy the comfort of knowing that the adult nearby will provide for their needs. The psalmist calls us to such a place with God as our provider.
The psalmist calls us to enjoy the comfort of God as our provider.
The psalm ends with this sentence: “O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.” Yes, we have responsibilities to live out our kingdom calling at work, at home, and in the community. We are not to be idle with our time and talents. These are gifts from God to be used for God. But at the same time, we must never bear the responsibility as if everything depends on us. God is our hope and our ultimate provider. He is the giver of everything in life. He can and will supply our needs in every way as we release ourselves into his care. In order to do that we must first repent of thinking it is all on us. God never intended us to run the world. As the old song says, “He’s got the whole world in His hands.”
God can and will supply our needs in every way as we release ourselves into his care.
So work hard, but remember who is ultimately in charge and capable of meeting every need.
Your time with God’s Word
Psalm 131:1-3 ESV
Photo by Nathan Dumlao at pexels.com
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