“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
“In school a teacher lays out work for his pupils. I resolve to accept each situation of this year as God’s layout for that hour, and never to lament that it is a very commonplace or disappointing task. One can pour something divine into every situation. One of the mental characteristics against which I have rebelled most is the frequency of my “blank spells” when I cannot think of anything worth writing, and sometimes cannot remember names. Henceforth I resolve to regard these as God’s signal that I am to stop and listen. Sometimes you want to talk to your son, and sometimes you want to hold him tight in silence. God is that way with us, He wants to hold still with us in silence.
Here is something we can share with all of the people in the world: They cannot all be brilliant or rich or beautiful. They cannot all even dream beautiful dreams like God gives some of us. They cannot all enjoy music. Their hearts do not all burn with love: But everybody can learn to hold God by the hand and rest. And when God is ready to speak the fresh thoughts of heaven will flow in like a crystal spring. Everybody rests at the end of the day, what a world gain if everybody, could rest in the waiting arms of the Father, and listen until He whispers.”
Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “Learn to hold God by the hand and rest.”
Happy Monday. I am exhausted, spent, “poured out like a drink offering” (cf. 2 Timothy 4:6).
But I am not posting about holding the hand of God and resting today because I just returned from a long trip. I am doing it because it is the only way to live in perpetual communion with Him.
Let me connect “hold God by the hand and rest” with serving as a CEO. Hang with me.
This week with CIM (India), GTP co-hosts the International Consultation on ERM (Enterprise Risk Management) on 6-9 May 2025. People ask me: What is Enterprise Risk Management?
I tell them that growing a ministry God’s way links not to having a strategic plan but to stewarding risk. Our role is not to determine the future but to steward faithfully in the present.
Think about it. That’s how GTP has grown so rapidly worldwide. It was certainly not my grand idea. And it represents how we help to position churches and ministries to stay connected to God and situate them for healthy growth.
For example, on 9 May 2025, I will deliver a paper on “Stewardship of the Mission and Risk: Policy Development and Protocol Establishment with Standards to Foster a Culture of Integrity before God and Man.”
To get free access to view or download my paper and 11 other papers like it, register for the consultation here.
Now let me circle back and explain the connection to “hold God by the hand and rest.”
Serving as a steward over a church as a pastor or over a ministry as an administrator or board member is a big job. How will you do it? I advise workers to steward risk which appears as putting up guardrails to stay on track.
When you put up those guardrails, God takes care of the rest. Don’t believe me? Hold His hand and find out. See for yourself.