Tuesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

Place It Before God… Trust Him With the Rest.

In today’s first reading from Second Book of Kings, we hear about King Hezekiah facing what seemed like an impossible situation. The Assyrian army, led by Sennacherib, was threatening Jerusalem. From every point of view, Judah had no chance. The enemy was stronger, and the situation looked hopeless.

Yet what stands out in this reading is not the threat itself, but Hezekiah’s response. Rather than allowing fear to take over, he takes the letter containing the threat, goes into the temple, and places it before the Lord.

That simple act says a great deal. Hezekiah understood that there are moments in life when we come face to face with situations we cannot solve on our own.

All of us know what it is like to face circumstances that leave us worried, uncertain, or wondering what we are supposed to do next. It may be concerns about our health, struggles within our family, burdens we have carried for a long time, or situations that simply feel beyond our control.

Very often our instinct is to hold onto those worries and keep turning them over in our minds as though somehow we alone can fix them.

But Hezekiah shows us something different. He places the burden before the Lord.

I have always appreciated a story often told about Pope John XXIII. After becoming pope and carrying all the responsibility that came with leading the Church, he is said to have ended some very difficult days by praying, “Lord, it’s Your Church. I’m going to bed.”

Those words were not spoken out of carelessness. They reflected trust. He understood that there are some burdens we were never meant to carry alone.

Perhaps that is exactly what this reading teaches us today. Faith does not mean pretending problems do not exist. It means knowing where to bring them.

Like Hezekiah, we are invited to place before God the things we cannot control and trust that He is already at work.

Sometimes the greatest act of faith is not finding the answer ourselves, but trusting that even when we cannot yet see the way forward, God has not stopped working.

Place it before God… and trust Him with the rest.