give it to God

What do you do when you don’t know what to do?

Sometimes situations are beyond my control. Someone I care about gets cancer. A marriage is falling apart. A friend turns his back on God. I have to send some of my troops to war. In all these cases, things I’ve had in my life and continue to have, I feel helpless. What do you do when there’s nothing you can do?

Paul answered that question this morning in Acts 20. These words are ones he spoke to the leaders of the Ephesian church while he was on his way to Jerusalem. Paul knew because God told him that he would end up in prison. He would never visit the Ephesians again, and he knew that false teachers would go to them instead; he warned they would be “savaged by wolves.” His flock was in danger, and he, the head shepherd, had to leave them in the care of new leaders. He was worried.

But here’s his conclusion, from verse 32: “‘Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.’”

That’s it. That’s the answer always, that we have a God who is capable of taking care of all the things we can’t. Our God, who enabled us, will enable others. Our God, who made us, can heal us. Our God, who loves us, loves everyone in a way we can’t imagine.

My loved ones are far more secure in God’s hands than in mine. That’s why I pray for his blessings on them.