Trusting God With What You Cannot Fix

There is something in many of us that genuinely believes, against all evidence, that if we just get our hands on the problem, we can fix it. A YouTube tutorial, enough determination, sufficient effort. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Except sometimes there is not.

There is a word for the things that will not be fixed this side of heaven: inconsolable things. The kinds of suffering that remain unresolved, the losses that do not fully heal, the situations that circle without resolution, the prayers that have been prayed for years without the answer arriving. Our world is full of them.

Psalm 46 was written into exactly that kind of world. The earth is giving way. Mountains are falling into the sea. Nations are in an uproar. And then God speaks.

Here is something worth sitting with in that verse. When God says be still, He is not primarily speaking to anxious believers telling them to calm down. He is speaking into the chaos itself. He is speaking to the raging, to the inconsolable, to the things that seem out of control. This is the same voice that spoke into a storm on the Sea of Galilee and said: hush. And the storm obeyed.

That is where our stillness actually comes from. Not from talking ourselves into calm, not from managing our anxiety well enough. But from knowing that God has spoken into the chaos, that He is God over it, and that one day every inconsolable thing on earth will find its resolution in Him.

We cannot fix everything. Some things will not be made right until Jesus makes all things new. But those things are not outside of His care or beyond His authority. We can surrender them tonight. Place them in the hands of the One who speaks to chaos and is obeyed.

Tonight, cease striving. What belongs to God can go back to God.

Ponder Tonight

The be still of Psalm 46 is not primarily an invitation to quiet meditation. It is God’s word of authority spoken into the chaos, which means our internal stillness flows from knowing He is sovereign over what we cannot control.

There is a meaningful difference between things that belong to us to act on and things that belong to God to resolve. Sorting those out honestly, and releasing the latter, is one of the most important and most difficult acts of faith available to us.

Inconsolable things, the losses and situations that will not be fully made right in this lifetime, are not outside of God’s care. They are held by the same One who will one day make all things new. That does not erase the pain, but it does change the nature of the waiting.

We do not have to figure out tonight how to make everything work out. What actually belongs to us tomorrow can wait until tomorrow. Tonight is for surrendering what is beyond our fixing into hands that were always better suited to hold it.

Tonight’s Scripture

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” — Psalm 46:10, ESV

Your Evening Prayer

Father,

We have so little control over our lives, and yet we keep trying to grab it. We keep believing that if we can just get our hands on the situation, we can fix it. But there are things that will not be fixed until Jesus makes all things right. Tonight we surrender those into Your hands.

You know the inconsolable things in our lives. The things that still hurt, still feel unfinished, still remain unresolved. Thank You that even the things You have not yet fixed are not outside Your care.

Tonight, help us cease striving. Place what we cannot control into Your hands. Speak into our chaos the same word You spoke into the storm. And let us rest in You.

Amen.

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