Many of the pastors in my town take turns preaching at the local nursing home. It’s a great and important ministry, as the Bible commands us to encourage those who are older than us (1 Timothy 5:1-2). So I’m grateful to have been given the opportunity to preach there many times over the last few years.
Even still, I chose recently to back out of my turn to preach at the nursing home at least for the rest of the year.
I’ve learned that I can’t do it all. You can’t do it all. Sometimes we try to, but we can’t. We only have so much time. We only have so many resources. So sometimes we need to need to stop doing things – even good things – so that we can be more faithful to do what God has called us to.
I’m learning that the desire to do it all usually stems from wanting to prove yourself to be righteous in your own strength. But we need to remember that our greatest works of righteousness are filthy rags before God. God is so incredibly perfect in everything that He does that even our very best is nothing compared to what God can do. We can’t do anything that proves ourselves to be perfect and righteous.
So more than doing anything, we need to rest. Psalm 127:2 makes this clear:
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
It’s not saying that work isn’t good, it’s just saying don’t put all your eggs in that basket. It’s vanity to think that work itself is going to get you anywhere. In the end, we simply need to rest in God.
Rest in the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean that we do nothing, but it does mean that we need to stop acting like we can do it all. And the things that we do attempt, we need to do in the strength that God supplies, and for His glory.