Matins Devotion: June 16, 2023

Proverbs 16:1-24

Proverbs 16:3 admonishes us to “Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.” When we look at the Hebrew, we find a really fascinating picture here. The word we translate as “commit” means to roll away something large and heavy. For example, this is the same word that’s used elsewhere to describe the act of rolling away a stone that’s used to cover the mouth of a well so that water can be drawn out from it. When this word is used with reference to God, as it is here in the proverb, it is a beautiful picture of the First Commandment. The First Commandment bids us to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. To look to Him, and Him alone, for all goodness, help, and comfort. To take all of life’s plans, burdens, responsibilities, circumstances, and unknowns, roll them up into a great big ball, and send it rolling into the waiting and outstretched hands of God.

It’s very reminiscent of Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount. Remember what he tells his disciples? Over and over he tells them “do not be anxious.” Don’t be anxious about whether you will have enough food, or what you will drink, or what you will wear. Why? Because God your Heavenly Father knows all these things that you need and you can trust him to not only give you these things, but to give you something even greater than food, and water, and clothing for today. You can trust him to give you his Kingdom and his righteousness both now and forever.

And he has. That’s why Jesus went to the cross. To hang there under the weight of every sin that weighs you down. Every anxious thought that burdens your soul. Every terror that strikes your conscience. God took the weight of sin and death that was crushing you and used it to crush his own Son so that you could be free. So that you could live with him forever in his Kingdom of righteousness. So that you could bundle up every care and cast it into the arms of the one who cares for you.

So let those anxieties go. Quit trying to help God out by “managing” all the things that he never intended for you to manage. Quit trying to hold on to the heavy burden of being God. You’re not God. You’re God’s creature. But even though you are frail and weak and easily crushed under the burdens of life, you have a Heavenly Father who has sent his Son to lift that burden off your back so that he can give you rest. So send your burden rolling. “Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.”