Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Don’t place all your eggs in one basket?” This saying is often used when discussing how to make wise financial investments. The idea is that it is not wise to risk everything in one plan or idea. Whether using all one’s savings to purchase a house, car, or stocks, the advice is to not put all of one’s resources in one place. While this is most of the time an excellent advice regarding financial matters, this concept should not be applied when we are deciding whether to trust all of our lives, everything we are and have, to God. He is the one basket where we can place all our eggs and feel safe and secure. There is no one stronger, no one wiser, and no one more gracious and faithful. For those that look to God alone are fully and eternally protected in Him.

I am currently slowly walking through the Psalms during my morning reading time. They have been a great encouragement to me, as well as a challenge. In the 62^nd Psalm we see an image of the psalmist placing his whole life, completely and confidently, in the hands of God. The psalmist writes, “He alone is my rock and my salvation” (verse 2,6). The word “alone” carries a significant meaning to the verse as it leaves no room for another source of strength, protection, or salvation. He is able to write this confidently because he knows that his salvation does not come from any other source but God (verse 1). The psalmist draws his hope, not from his status (verse 9) or from gaining riches (verse 10), but from God alone whom he waits for in silence (verse 5). His hope is not even in seeing his enemies get what they deserve, for he knows that God will render to each person what they rightly deserve (verse 12).

The confidence the psalmist portrays is convicting and encouraging to me at the same time. Convicting, for I know how often I place my hope in wanting to see the circumstances of my life turn out just the way I want, rather than resting my hope in God alone and trusting Him with all life’s details. Convicting, for I know how often my joy is determined by how life is going rather than how gracious, powerful, loving, faithful, and righteous God is. Yet, at the same time, this psalm is encouraging, for it points me to confidently trust all of my life, circumstances, plans, past, present, and future to God alone. It reminds me that there is complete safety and unworried rest when I trust everything to Him.

So, is there a message that the psalmist calls us to? Yes, there is. Right in the middle of the psalm, there is a verse that call us to action: “Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us” (verse 8). The psalmist is encouraging us to place all our eggs in one basket, in God alone. In Him, there is no risk, only security. There is no worry, only rest. Risk comes from when we place our hope in anything other than God, for it is never a sure thing. Worry comes from placing our confidence in something or someone that cannot guarantee us what it promises. When our trust is in Him, our soul can wait in silence. Not in a panic or frightening silence. Rather in a restful silence. For we know that our salvation comes from Him alone. “He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken” (verse 2). Therefore, may we trust in Him alone.