Your Way

 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.  Psalm 37:5

I'm part of a men's prayer group at our church, and this morning the Lord put this Scripture on my heart to share for a short devotional. As we talked about all that the words of the Psalmist, King David, might mean, one of the brothers said that he had read where someone said of it, "Commit your way to The Way." I've been thinking about that since then. I'm blown away by all that is in that statement.

When I was preparing for the ministry at Bible College, we were always encouraged to study the meaning of words in Scripture. In the original Hebrew and Greek Aramaic in which the Scriptures were written, a word could have more than one meaning. This is a bit alien to the western, English based mind. For instance, the meaning of the Hebrew words for "commit" and "way" would be, "roll upon in trust the course of your life." That would mean putting into His hands, and therefore completely out of your hands, the entire way of your life and all that makes for your life. We humans are born with an ingrained desire to control.....everything. For God to command that we give unto Him all things concerning our lives and renounce our desire to control them goes against our fleshly nature. It is almost always the last thing we want to do. We're blind to the reality that it should be the first. In whose hands are things, all things, most secure? His or ours?

As I think upon this I'm reminded of an illustration I once came upon in my devotional reading. A Christian missionary/explorer was in an uncharted, unmapped territory in Africa. He had secured a guide who was both highly regarded and trusted. The missionary, realizing the complete lack of anything like a map, asked this guide, "How will we find the way?" The guide simply  replied, "I am the way." The missionary's part was to trust the one who knew the way and so was the way. Jesus Christ told His listeners, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes unto the Father except by Me." The human race has been searching for the "way home" ever since Eden. We have come up with some remarkable ways of getting to God. All of them require us "doing something," actually many things to get there. Christ tells us that all of them fail. They fail because we can not reach Him by our good works or behavior. We can only reach the Father through faith in His Son. His Son who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Way....in all things. 

Many who have trusted Him with being the way to the Father and His eternal life, somehow find it hard, even impossible to trust Him with the day to day events of life. We believe that He can do the greatest work, saving our souls, forgiving our sin, bringing us into His Kingdom, yet we cannot trust Him with our needs, our families, marriages, jobs, and ministries. We take them all, all the burdens upon ourselves when He calls us to cast all our burdens upon Him. This is how our lives become a wearying grind, filled with anxiety, stress, frustration, and eventually, hopelessness and despair. I'm always reminded of an entertainer I once saw on the old Ed Sullivan variety show. He had 10 poles upon which he placed 10 plates which he set to spinning. He then raced from pole to pole trying to keep them spinning. He was able to do so for a few minutes and his act ended with him being greatly applauded. Like him, we can keep all of our affairs "spinning" for a short time, but no longer. Eventually our plates will fall, and us with them. Many yours are falling right now.

Can you commit your way to Him? Can you trust Him....with all things that make for your life, your way? Can not the One who alone gives life, take care of all that makes up for life? If you can't trust Him, who then will you, can you trust?

Blessings,
Pastor O