Gems of Knowledge

Today’s One Year Bible Verses: Job 4:1–7:21, 1 Corinthians 14:18–40, Psalm 37:30–40, Proverbs 21:27

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Give Them To God

When someone we love is struggling, our natural instinct is often to help. We want to solve the problem, change their thinking, convince them to make better choices, or somehow rescue them from whatever they are facing.

And when someone we love is making choices that hurt us, the temptation can be even stronger. We may think, If I could just get them to understand… If they would only listen… If I could somehow change this…

But some burdens were never ours to carry.

The Lord reminds us in today’s Gem of Knowledge:

“Don’t worry about others. Just give them to Me. Do not try and fix or save them. Just love them and pray for them. If they hurt you, give that to Me too. I will take it and comfort you. Amen.”

There is freedom in recognizing the difference between loving someone and taking responsibility for them.

We can encourage. We can speak truth when God directs us. We can help when help is appropriate. But ultimately, we cannot change another person’s heart. We cannot make their decisions for them, heal every wound they carry, or become their savior.

They already have One.

Today’s reading in Job gives us an interesting picture of what can happen when we try too hard to explain or fix someone else’s pain. Job is devastated and crying out in anguish when his friend Eliphaz begins offering his assessment of the situation. He reminds Job, “Your words have supported those who were falling; you encouraged those with shaky knees”(Job 4:4, NLT).

That part was true. Job had helped others.

But Eliphaz didn’t stop there. He began trying to explain Job’s suffering, assuming there must be a reason for it that he understood. Instead of simply sitting beside his hurting friend, he began diagnosing him.

Sometimes love needs fewer answers and more compassion.

We don’t always know what God is doing in someone else’s life. We don’t know every conversation He is having with them, every lesson He is teaching them, or how He may be working in circumstances we desperately want to change.

That’s where surrender comes in.

Psalm 37 says, “The godly offer good counsel; they teach right from wrong. They have made God’s law their own, so they will never slip from his path” (Psalm 37:30–31, NLT). There is absolutely a place for godly counsel. But counsel is different from control. We can lovingly offer truth while still leaving the outcome in God’s hands.

And sometimes the person we’re worried about isn’t simply struggling—they’ve hurt us.

That’s when surrender becomes even more personal.

We can spend enormous amounts of emotional energy replaying conversations, trying to understand motives, imagining what we should have said, or hoping the other person will finally recognize what they’ve done. But God doesn’t ask us to carry the wound indefinitely either.

He says, Give that to Me too.

Giving the hurt to God doesn’t mean pretending it didn’t happen or allowing someone to continue harming us. Forgiveness and healthy boundaries can exist together. It simply means we stop allowing the wound to become something we continually carry, nurture, and relive.

We give God the person.

We give Him the situation.

And we give Him what it did to our heart.

Then we let Him do what only He can do.

First Corinthians 14 reminds us that what we do should strengthen others. Paul says, “Everything that is done must strengthen all of you” (1 Corinthians 14:26, NLT). Sometimes the most loving thing we can do is pray, encourage when God gives us something to say, and then step back enough to let Him work.

You don’t have to save everyone you love.

You don’t have to fix every problem.

And you don’t have to carry every hurt.

Love them. Pray for them. Give them to Jesus.

Then let Him comfort and carry you, too. 💎

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Action (5 Minutes with God)

Give God at least 5 minutes of your time today. Ask Him:

• “Lord, what do You want me to know about this personally?”
  • Journal what He gives you through His Holy Spirit.
• Then ask, “What do You want me to do?”
  • Journal what He reveals – then do it!

Let today be a day of release with the Lord. If you are worrying about someone or they have hurt you, give it to God and trust Him to take care of them and you.

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Prayer

Dear Lord, help me love people without trying to take Your place in their lives. Show me when to speak, when to help, when to pray, and when to simply step back and trust You. I give You the people I worry about and the situations I cannot fix. And Lord, I also give You the hurts I have carried because of them. Heal and comfort my heart as I release them into Your hands. I trust You to do what I cannot. In Jesus’ mighty name I pray, amen.

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