What does it mean when Christian friends of mine tell me to turn all my troubles over to Jesus, or lay it (them) at the foot of the cross. I’m going through some difficult personal issues and all I hear from my Christian friends is that I need to pray about it and lay my troubles at the foot of the cross or turn it all over to Jesus. When I ask them to explain, they can’t. They just tell me that Jesus will take care of it. Does this mean I say a prayer about my circumstance, tell Jesus that I am turning it all over to him, and then ignore the problem and move on hoping the Lord will take care of the issue?
Solving a personal problem can be difficult because the solution is often beyond our control, and making ourselves responsible for a result we can’t control is a recipe for stress.
Turning a problem over to Jesus doesn’t mean we ignore it or stop working on it. We still apply whatever skill or ability we have toward solving the problem but we add two things to the mix.
First, we pray for divine assistance in finding a solution.
Second, we turn the outcome over to the Lord, subordinating our will in the matter to His.
There’s really no risk in this because we know that God is working everything together for our good (Romans 8:28), and giving Him the responsibility for the result takes the stress away.
We just have to be willing to let the Lord produce the result He wants in the situation, even if it turns out to be different from the one we want.
So laying our problems at the foot of the cross means deciding to let His will be done in a matter, and letting Him work through us to achieve it. Jesus said, “Come to me you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).