Devotions with Pastor Fran Ruecker

God Has A Great Big Platter!
Matthew 11:28: “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”

I used to keep a big rubber maid spatula in my office with a big bright bow on it as a constant reminder not to stress about things that I couldn’t always control.  Do you find yourself really stressed this time of year?  Holidays are fast approaching and there is so much to do!  There’s Thanksgiving to think about and whether or not there will really be a shortage on turkeys or will it be some other thing that they deem to be a shortage. Prices keep going up and quantities keep getting smaller! Gas keeps going up and wages don’t cover the upsurge of costs.  Christmas is just around the corner and I still have so many things to make or buy! Stress…Stress…Stress!

We all find ourselves with our plates full to overflowing with all the things we need to do, bills that need to be paid, appointments that have to be kept, winterizing our homes, trying to keep up with full or part time job obligations, and the list goes on…But did you know that you don’t have to keep that full plate?  God has a great big platter and if we will take the time to scrape off our plates onto His big platter we would find the load isn’t so heavy.

The trouble is when you scrape off a plate with a fork or spoon there is always leftovers left on the plate.  But if we will take a rubber spatula and scrape the plate there isn’t a trace of leftovers.  Thus the big rubber spatula! I have found that taking a “spatula” to all the things that are stressing me out right now and scrape them onto God’s platter things are so much easier!  Maybe I need to re-hang the spatula back up as a reminder that I really don’t have to stress about all of this worldly stuff!  That God still has a great big platter and He promises that we will find rest for our souls if we will cast all our burdens on to Him.

So get out the spatula and start scraping! Scrape those deadlines that have you so bogged down! Scrape those time restraints! Scrape those worries about our worldly woes! Even scrape those family dynamics that you can’t control that seem to rear their ugly head around the holidays! Scrape all those financial worries! Even scrape those worries about those wayward kiddos! Scrape them on to His platter and see if you don’t find rest for your soul!

The Holidays are fast approaching but we can approach is so much more joyfully if we have a clean plate because we have scraped it all onto His great big platter!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Pastor Fran