You have likely heard it said “don’t put all your eggs into one basket”. This phrase is commonly used to encourage someone not to sow everything they have into one place, to avoid putting all they have into one thing. This could pertain to many things like finances, your career, friendships, etc. This is said because when you put all your “eggs” into one basket, when you trust all you have into one thing it poses the risk of great loss.
Have you ever felt stressed out? I could probably guess your answer to that question, it’s rather rhetorical I suppose. Stress is a normal feeling to have, it is common to everyone. Although it is normal to experience stress, too much stress or the lack of effective coping skills can lead to rather negative effects. There are different types of stress such as positive stress, also known as “eustress”, acute stress, episodic acute stress, and chronic stress; along with stress related disorders like ptsd, anxiety, and depression.
Believers are not exempt from experiencing stress, I’m sure many of you can testify to that. I recall a time where I was so stressed I was struggling to function day to day. I was experiencing so much anxiety; it began to make the most minuscule tasks seem insurmountable. I began to pray about what I was experiencing, seeking help from God. Have you ever been in a place where you ask God “why”? I’ve heard it said many times that you shouldn’t question God. However, I disagree, I feel it permissible; we just need to reverence His sovereignty when doing so and approach God in a humble way (Jeremiah 33:3). I prayed to God asking for an answer as to why I was feeling so much stress and how to rid myself of it. It was then that God gave me a revelation: “put all your eggs in one basket”.
“3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Jeremiah 33:3
“Put all my eggs in one basket?” what is that supposed to mean? Yes, though it may sound silly, this is the revelation He gave to me. For the word revelation simply means “the making known of something that was previously secret or unknown”; This goes hand in hand with Jeremiah 33:3. When we don’t understand something, God encourages us to come to Him, to call upon Him and ask. His word promises us that He will not only answer us but show us things that are unknown to us. So, I had called on God looking for an answer and I received this revelation; God had answered me and shown me something I did not know.
God began to reveal to me that I had been categorizing my life, I had many baskets. A basket for work, a basket for church, a basket for self-care, a basket for friendships, a basket for my finances, a basket for my marriage, etc. Without realizing it, I had removed God from the center of each of these areas of my life. Instead of building my life around God, I had just tossed all the “eggs” that I believed directly pertained to Him into one of my many baskets. Prayer was in that basket, church was in that basket, Bible reading was in that basket; because all of those things are God things right?
God showed me that whether consciously or subconsciously, I was trying to limit Him; isolating Him to one spot. I wasn’t saying with my mouth, “God I want to limit You” no but my actions, the way I had been navigating my life said it for me. I wasn’t giving God His due place of Lordship in my life. I was so stressed out because I was attempting to rule and reign in my life when that goes against the very fundamentals of my design. To believe in God and His word is to believe we were designed to love and worship God. When we fail to prioritize God in our life, we cut ourselves off from the full flow of His guidance, His peace, love, joy, and strength (Matthew 6:33).
God was showing me that I was so stressed because I wasn’t handling everything with prayer but I was trying to stretch myself too thin to work things out on my own. I could hear Him in my spirit in loving correction say “put all your eggs in one basket”. In many instances it is not wise to do this, hence the popular phrase. This is because you would be sowing all you have, trusting all you have into something or someone of this world. Man cannot promise perfection, man cannot guarantee success, and without this there is again, room for risk, room for loss. However, with God, there is no risk.
“When we fail to prioritize God in our life, we cut ourselves off from the full flow of His guidance, His peace, love, joy, and strength”
In God we can put all of our eggs into one basket. We can cast every concern, every thought on Him with confidence that He will not only sustain us but work all things out for our good.
“Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” Psalm 55:22
“all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28
If this resonates with you and you too find yourself in a place of stress and anxiousness with one too many baskets, it can feel overwhelming, feeling the need for a spiritual overhaul. Often we overcomplicate things, making them more difficult than need be. If you feel this way, the advice is the same, put all your eggs into one basket; speaking figuratively, just start moving the eggs. If you haven’t been trusting God with your marriage, don’t focus on the time that’s gone, focus on the time you have now, just start trusting Him with it now. The same applies for all the areas of your life, put them all in one basket, that basket is Jesus; put everything into Jesus.