It’s Time to Take Out the Trash

It seems as though there’s some unwritten law of the universe that men must take out the trash. I don’t know why, but that’s our job.

For some reason I put it off at my house even though it’s really not that hard. Our trash cans have wheels and a handle, so all I need to do is drag them out front. Then someone comes along and picks up the trash.

They do their job, and they do it well. I’m glad about that because if they decided not to pick up our trash for a month, we’d have a serious situation.

Now, what I’m about to say might seem a little odd: Jesus, in effect, wants to pick up your trash. Let me explain. He said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NLT).

In other words, “Would you please bring your cares to Me? Would you please bring your anxieties and your worries and your problems and your burdens to Me? When you do that, I will give you rest.”

That’s quite a promise because we all have cares and anxieties and worries that weigh us down. You know the feeling. Just when you lay your head down at night, here they come. What about this crisis? What about that uncertainty?

Sometimes you’re able to give them over to the Lord, but then they’ll pop back into your head again. It feels like a lot of weight on your shoulders.

Here’s what the Bible says we should do: “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7 NLT). We need to give deliberately and intentionally put our worries and cares into God’s hands.

When your burdens pile up, bring them to God.