Psalms 131:1-3 (NASB)
[1] O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.
[2] Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.
[3] O Israel, hope in the LORD
From this time forth and forever.
There are areas in my ministry as a pastor where I can seemingly have a sense of control or management. I can manage meetings with the different boards, prayerfully coming up with decisions for the church. I can manage ministry heads as they take care of their ministries, giving them guidance as to how to take care of the ministry under them, and the workers that serve with them. When members of the church ask for counsel I can be there to lead them to God’s Word, assist them in finding God’s will. I can manage my preparation for Sunday sermons, prayerfully seeking God’s wisdom in His word.
But there are areas of ministry - “great matters” or “things too difficult for me”, just as the psalmist says above, that I have no control of. One of them is the heart and life of a believer. I can talk to them, counsel them, lead them to God’s word. But I have absolutely no power or control over how a believer deals with his/her relationship with God. I can only pray that God would overcome (or even overthrow!) their hearts and lead them to complete submission to Him and His Word. These are great matters and things too difficult for me that God uses to humble me, make me realize that He is God...and I am not.
Another is the growth and life of the church. It was Jesus Christ who proclaimed “I will build my church...”, not me, or the different church boards, or the ministers and workers or disciplers...Christ. We have no idea whatsoever of what the outcome of every sermon, every discipleship lesson, every bible study or counseling will be. It’s all in God’s hand.
This is the weaning process that God works in me. He works in me to the point of composing and quieting my soul, trusting in Him, depending on Him, for areas in ministry that I have no control over. Just like a weaned child with his mother. A weaned child is someone who stops crying for milk, and knows that eventually his mother will come and feed him, satisfy his hunger.
That is what I should be - a weaned child of God, not crying anymore for results, not frustrated in the lack of growth or commitment of another believer. Not crying over someone who does not want to listen. Not worried about the growth of the church. That’s not my part. These are the things too difficult for me - and I have to trust in the Lord completely for it.
I have a role in God’s building His church, but my hope is in Him, not in my work or effort.
My hope should be in the Lord, now and forevermore.
We all have areas in our life that are “great matters” that are “too difficult” for us to handle. God does that on purpose. We may have a spouse we are frustrated with, children we are concerned about, areas in our business or work that we become worried about. It is His way of humbling us, of making us realize that we are not in control, and we will never be in full control. Yes, there are areas of our life that we can manage with God, but there will always be areas where we will just have to humble ourselves and completely trust in Him.
God is weaning us as His children. He’s teachings us to stop crying, complaining, and completely trusting that He will eventually take care of every area of our life. As we grow and mature eventually all our crying and complaining will stop, and we will have become children who have composed and quiet souls, knowing that our God is there.
We are to put our hope in God. No one else. Nothing else. He is our heavenly Father, weaning us to trust completely in Him.
