Last year, it was my privilege to meet the school bus on Tuesday afternoons and greet four of our elementary-age grandchildren. One of our then first-graders would always beg for me to carry his backpack home from the bus stop. And every week, I took the backpack and replied, “What do you have in here? Bricks?”
After snacks, I always asked about homework, and this little one would say, “I don’t think I have any.”
“Let’s take a look.” I lifted his stuffed heavy backpack to the kitchen table and looked inside. One item at a time, layer by layer, I began spreading out the contents, the treasured collections of a curious little boy. Crumpled worksheets already graded, his school-supplied Chromebook, a partially eaten lunch undated, an empty metal water bottle, several library books (“I was wondering where those were,” he chuckled), notices about past school events, a couple beloved small stuffed animals, a wrinkled t-shirt, dirty socks, his jacket that had been lost, and at the bottom, well, there was his new list of spelling words for the week and a practice sheet for subtraction.
It was all spread out on the table. The bulky, the scary, and the too much to carry.
One of the ways the Old Testament talks about praying is spreading out our personal stuff before the LORD -- the good, the bad and the ugly.
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it, and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed… Isaiah 37. 14-15
Like Hezekiah in the midst of panic-inducing turmoil, praying is our first response, not last resort.
Not laying before God our pre-conceived answers or carefully manipulated outcomes, but coming with hands spread out and open to receive what God lays before us. Spreading out, clearing out, handing off our griefs, fears, and anxieties, and trusting Him instead.
What does prayer have to do with all this? Everything. A literal come-to-Jesus moment.
Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest….For My yoke is easy, and My burden in light. Matthew 11. 28, 30
The tipping point, when we are so burdened and overwhelmed, is asking God for help, not shirking our responsibilities, but unloading twenty pounds of unnecessary rocks of anxiety in our backpacks that God never intended us to drag along in the first place.
We spread out before Him what appears as heavy baggage we have to carry, wounds still unhealed from the past, favorite grudges we just can’t let go, and even irritations, like pebbles in our shoes, the unseen, distracting, and the hurtful. Spreading out allows God to reveal what is real and what is not, what is essential, and what is just toxic junk handicapping our hearts.
When we pray and open up our hearts before God, the things that defeat us are not so insurmountable at all. Worries and frightful things are revealed to be as they are, imaginary dragons that occupy way too much brain space, clog up our emotions, take up a demanding residence for us to care for fulltime, and push us to our limits.
It’s easy to see what others need to deal with. But we all have stuff in our heavy-laden backpacks that needs to be prayed through. What do we need to spread out before the Lord? The busy details of this overscheduled day, the accumulated layers of fears that weigh us down, and way-down deep in the bottom the fierce and overwhelming foes that we cannot even begin to face. Let Me carry that for you.
When we spread out these things, we are not revealing anything new and mysterious to God. He sees and knows already. But spreading and praying out into the open where we can see them in the sunlight, we find them faded, broken and without any power over us. When we spread them out, God always unfolds something new.
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