Give it away

"As children bring their broken toys with tears for us to mend, I brought my broken dreams to God because He is my friend. But then instead of leaving Him in peace to work alone, I hung around and tried to help with ways that were my own. At last I snatched them back and cried, 'How can you be so slow?' 'My child,' He said, 'What could I do...you never did let go.'" ~ Loretta P. Burns


Ouch. How guilty we all are of this. How many times have we been touched by the pastor's message and felt that tugging to go to the altar and give our problems to God. We kneel, close our eyes, begin to weep and pray - saying, "Lord, I give it You. I trust You. Please take this situation that I am in and handle it. Fix it. Mend my broken heart. Heal my body. Place Your hand on my financial needs." etc. Then, we thank Him, dry our eyes and get up to walk off. At the first sign of doubt...or that almost immediate reminder from the devil about our circumstance and we practically run back to that ole' wooden altar and pick our "stuff" back up. Almost declaring, "Mine!"

I'm reminded of when I was a small child and we had an evangelist come to our church. He had the spiritual gift of healing and was used by God incredibly. We saw a lot of miraculous healings take place that evening. I don't remember a lot of things from my childhood in detail and I don't remember her name. But, I've never forgotten this.

This little old lady - for as long as I remember her - had a walker. You never saw her without it. She couldn't get around without the help of it. This minister came all the way to the back of the sanctuary and called her out into the aisle. He laid hands on her and prayed for her. He took that walker out of her hands and she followed him up the aisle by herself. Without her walker. Everyone was clapping and praising God for her healing.

Then, it's like something snapped in her mind. Her "security" was gone. She no longer would need that "crutch" that she had hidden behind for all those years. I guess she wasn't comfortable with the idea of that. That lady turned around, walked (with no problem) back up the aisle to her seat and to her walker, picked it up and wobbled on out behind it, where she'd been for all that time.

Why in the world? I remember laughing about it, but not understanding. I see now though how many of us use our problems, our situations, our circumstances as a crutch. We have gotten so used to carrying it all around with us, everywhere we go, like baggage. We can't give it up. We try and we are sincere with our giving it to God. But, we are so accustomed to trying to handle it ourselves that we can't hardly find it in us to let it go. To trust in someone else or even our Creator to fix things.

The Bible says, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass." (Ps 37:3-5)

So, allow your Father to work. He will work things out for you according to His will. If you let Him.

Leave your walker/crutch right where it was when you surrendered it to the Lord.