“If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?” — Luke 12:26
“Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?” — Ecclesiastes 7:13
In Luke 12, the Lord Jesus addresses anxiety. He reminds His hearers that if we cannot even control the smallest matters — adding a cubit to our stature, preserving our life, controlling tomorrow — why are we consumed with worry over greater things?
Ecclesiastes deepens the lesson: some things in life are arranged by God Himself. “Who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?” There are seasons God bends that we cannot straighten. There are valleys God appoints that we cannot level.
The principle: If you cannot control the smallest detail, you certainly cannot override the sovereign design of God. Worry attempts to straighten what God has bent. Faith rests in the wisdom of the One who bent it.
Job’s Crooked Path
Consider Job (Job 1–2). In one day he lost wealth, children, and health. He could not reverse it. He could not fix it. He could not understand it. When God finally spoke in Job 38, He did not explain the suffering — He revealed His sovereignty: “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:4)
Job learned that he could not control the smallest workings of creation. Only God governs both the straight and the crooked. Peace came to Job when surrender replaced striving.
Paul’s Thorn
In 2 Corinthians 12:7–9, Paul faced a “thorn in the flesh.” Three times he prayed for its removal. God did not remove it. Instead, the Lord said: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
God did not straighten what He had bent. He supplied grace instead of change. Paul stopped demanding deliverance and began embracing dependence. That is Luke 12 faith. That is Ecclesiastes 7 wisdom.
Some burdens are not removed — they are assigned.
Some crooked paths are not punishment — they are preparation.
Some unanswered prayers are not neglect — they are divine design.
When we cannot change it, we must consider it — the work of God. If you cannot control the smallest detail of tomorrow, and you cannot straighten what God has bent, then the safest place is not control — it is surrender.