Every Single Step

This morning I was praying through a situation beyond my control, just pouring out my heart to God and asking Him to somehow help. I can’t see the answer, and although it affects me, I could not see a single thing I could do that would make a difference. As I prayed, God’s presence graciously surrounded me with comfort and I heard a hint of a whisper to read Psalm 37. I love it when He directs me to a passage in His Word – it doesn’t matter how many thousands of years ago the words were written down – God’s truth stands for ever, and when He speaks it directly into a situation, it never fails to help.

So, Psalm 37, especially verses 3-7 were just so comforting this morning, reminding me to trust and hope in God and let Him direct me, be my righteousness and generally come through for me. Verse 5 in particular stood out to me and I felt again a nudge to dig in a little deeper. And I felt He wanted me to share what I found there, because it encouraged me so much, I hope it does the same for whoever reads this too…

Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
(Ps 37:5 NKJV)

That first word, “commit” comes from the Hebrew word galal (Strongs 1556), meaning to roll, roll away, commit, remove, trust.
Firstly this reminded me of Gilgal, where God ‘rolled away’ the reproach of the Egyptians after Joshua had led the Israelites miraculously through the Jordan (Joshua 5:9).
I wondered again why God used the term ‘roll away’ rather than ‘lifted off’ I’m sure there is probably a very significant reason that I hope to discover, but this morning as I read a few cross-references I saw that it was often used in reference to rolling rocks away from the coverings of wells, or caves – and God showed me that rolling away is what happens to things that are too heavy to be lifted or carried!

When we have burdens that are so heavy we can’t even lift them, we are invited to make a conscious choice to roll them onto God, so He can take responsibility for them.

The next word is “way” – or derek (Strongs 1870), meaning way, road, distance, journey, matter. It has several other nuanced meanings, including action, acts, conduct, impulses, practice, manner, direction, distance, wherever, toward, highway, path, pathway, wayside, course of life & conversation.
When I have ‘commit your way to God’ before, I have taken it as a reminder to seek God for the direction that I am to travel in, like when I come to a junction and need to know which way to go. But this closer reading reveals a lot more detail – and like I wrote about yesterday, God is in the detail.
Rather than asking God to lead the over-all direction of my life, so I can set off and refer back to Him next time I hit a junction, He is offering to lead my every step – every direction, every action, every impulse, conversation and manner of being, every distance travelled, and even the waysides that seem insignificant! It’ll take a slowing down to consult with Him on every step, but what a relief to roll the care of every detail onto Him!

Lord, let all these things be in You and guided by You – that every single step I take would be taken hand-in-hand with You.

The next word I looked up was “trust”, from batach (Strongs 982) – which does primarily mean trust, but also has connotations of complacency, confidence, reliance, boldness and carelessness. It carries a feeling of security, refuge and hope.
What a total blessing to know that we can trust God to the point of complacency. Trust often starts with a decision, such as rolling our cares off our shoulders and onto His much more capable ones. But then trust goes so much deeper, to the point where we don’t even have to be conscious in effort about it – we can just leave all our cares behind with Him, knowing that He has it all in hand (and if He needs us to pray about it some more, He will call us to pray in faith (never fear).

We can be care-less because we are not carrying our cares – He is!

The final word in that Bible verse is a little word translated in the NKJV as “He shall bring it to pass”. it is the word asah (Strongs 6213), and again, has a many-faceted meaning: do, make, bear (fruit), bring forth, accomplish, advance, appoint, become, bestow, have charge of, deal (with), finish, furnish, bring to pass, govern, be industrious, keep, maintain, perform, provide, sacrifice, set, trim, yield, use.
Every care that we roll onto God, He knows exactly what to do with it – trim it, sacrifice it, furnish it, maintain it, or complete it – He is the master craftsman who knows exactly what to do with every single detail of our life, as well as how to do it, in order to perfect His way in us!

So as a reminder to myself, and for anyone else reading this today, be encouraged to roll every single care onto God – especially (but not only) the burdens that are too heavy to carry. That we would take every single step entirely trusting in His care and ability to bring us to perfect fruitfulness! Amen.