March 22, 2012
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Relax.
When I was younger I took great responsibility over the welfare of the small groups I led and also over whatever work was given to me. But along with that responsibility, I also allowed myself to be hard on myself whenever something would fall through or members would turn away from the Lord. Rather than giving all the burdens to the Lord, I would try and carry some of them on my own. And I survived okay because then the responsibilities weren’t too big and the burdens weren’t that high.
Years later? More and more responsibility with more and more people and more and more ministries. God has been drilling into me this past year how I can’t take on anymore of the burdens on myself because they are getting heavy enough to crush me now. Whereas my body could withstand some of the stress years back, if I allow myself to get stressed now the stress is too high. I’m not saying that my life is more difficult than before, it’s not in any way, there is just a greater weight of responsibility. If I put this weight into God’s hands and trust in His Word, life now is just as simple as it was years ago. But outside of God’s hands, it’s a whole other ballgame of stress and burdens.
People don’t rise in rank in the military based on how much work they can do and how many burdens they can carry. They rise in the military based on faithfulness to their tasks and their ability to handle greater responsibility WITHOUT being burdened by it. Any general who gets overwhelmed by the brevity of his decisions should quickly be removed from service.
In the end, God is the author and perfecter of our faith. In the end, He who began a good work in us will carry it to completion. In the end, He is in charge of the assembly line of faith for every person and ministry, we are just called to be faithful over what is given to us for the time it is in our hands. And even then, we can trust that God is in control. If we get promoted to greater rank in the assembly line we should remain relaxed and confident, because God wouldn’t have deemed us fit for the service if He knew it would crush us. He wants us to give each and every burden and anxiety to Him so we can do our best and do it with joy and with peace.
1Peter 5:7 – Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.
