Pebbles

 "Cast all your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken." Psalm 55:22

Today I saw this Scripture posted on FB by a friend. I affirmed the post.....and then the Lord spoke to me. I had just written how I had found it true throughout all of my walk with Him, and I have, but the Father pressed me on some aspects of that where I hadn't. Not really or fully.

In the Old Testament and New, we are invited by the Father and His Son Jesus Christ to bring everything in our lives to Him. Nothing is to be held back. The truth is, we tend to hold a great deal back. Not really intentionally or in disobedience. It's just that there are things that we often consider too trivial to take to Him. Along with that thinking is the attitude that these smaller things can be handled by us in our own ways. No need to bother the Maker of the Universe.

I doubt that many of us have ever carried a 150 pound sack of pebbles. It would be an overwhelming burden and one we'd surely seek His help in. The thing is, that sack was filled one pebble at a time, and none of the pebbles by themselves amounted to any kind of load. Herein is the problem; so many of our cares are not overly burdensome in themselves, but as we tend to hold on to them, one by one, they become an overwhelming load to us. We've never committed them to Him, and now the weight of them is crushing us, distracting us, wearing us out. A single gnat is not much of a problem, but a swarm of them certainly is. We're desperate to escape them. So it is with all the cares that we seek to handle in our own strength, wisdom, and understanding.

How many "pebbles" are you carrying today? How many small things are combining to totally distract you away from not only the important aspects of life, but from the Lord Himself? How many swarms of gnats are swirling around you right now, stealing your peace, your joy, your life? What are we, for whatever reason, keeping to ourselves that He has commanded us to bring to Him? Do we recognize our disobedience in that?

I said that He spoke to me after I'd affirmed my belief in Psalm 55:22. He whispered to me of all the times I'd not brought the "smaller things" of my life to Him. Sickness, though not severe, yet I went first to a Doctor or a pharmacy before I went to Him. Or worse, I never even thought of first going to Him. So it is with so many issues in our lives. We simply don't take them to Him. None of them seem serious enough to derail our lives, so we seek to handle them, one at a time, by ourselves. They're pebbles. Not much in themselves....at first Eventually the load of it all exhausts us, even breaks us. It is not usually the great problems of life that crush us. It's all the little stresses that we try to deal with each day that lead to our breakdown. Could it be that you're on such a path right now?

As you trudge along today, what's in your "sack?" What are the pebbles that you've been accumulating, none of them much in themselves, but are now in sum crushing you? What small cares, worries, problems, have you been trying to deal with yourself rather than bringing to Him? "Cast all your cares on the Lord." Where have you, like me, been failing to do that? Where is the accumulated load crushing you? Be free of that "sack." It was never meant to be carried by you in the first place. It's His.......surrender it to Him.

Blessings,

Pastor O