“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
How does one know when to stop caring, that is in essence what this verse speaks of, if we are to lay all our cares, burdens and troubles at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, that means that we stop looking at them as such. We no longer view them as burdens, we no longer care about that which we have found as troubling to our souls. Beside the still waters, there are no cares or worries.
This is not just saying to ourselves, “What will be, will be,” that is a fatalist approach and infers no effort on our part in either considering the matter at hand that has become a burden to us, or bringing us one step closer to the beginning stages of depression. It does no good to take a nonchalant approach either to those cares, for that is nothing more than pretending that they do not matter to us, lying to ourselves does not solve any problem. There must be some form of proactive action upon our part, and it can only come to one of two conclusions, either we cast them upon the Lord, or we attempt on our own to deal with the problem, for that is what a care is, a problem in our lives.
There is little that one can do when that concern is a medical problem for a loved one, unless you are a physician you can be no more than a bystander in the situation, and at best we can ask the Lord to be with the doctors to lead them, but that does not address the core issue, does it, that care is an emotion that will not be swayed until the outcome, or in this scenario, the diagnosis is determined, thus the care is worrying. And I would dare to say that our opening verse means just that, cast all your worries at the foot of the Savior.
Easier said than done, easier to contemplate when it is someone else’s worries that we are asked to pray for than when our own emotional state is in turmoil, when it is personal.
“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:7)
If you have a care, you do not know this peace, and my friends, just because you know that the Lord Almighty is Sovereign, that all things work together for good, that He will never leave us or forsake us, it does not mean that you will not have cares. To those of you who think you will not have food, clothing and I dare say even some form of shelter tomorrow, Philippians 4:19 may be a comfort to you, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Those cares are worries, and worries of the mind are fears, and almost always those fears are of a deeply personal nature.
Again, in no disrespect, 1 John 4:18 is of little use when we are in the middle of the situation, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” We know the truth, we know He will never leave us, for we are engraved in the palms of His hands, but our sleep is taken from us, our appetites for not only food, but in an assurance of the future are removed from us, not by the Lord of course, but by the circumstances that surround us at the present time.
What we have no power over is what we concern ourselves with the most.
At times we place ourselves in these situations, and most generally because we will not wait on the Lord for a clear and concise answer from Him, believe it or not, what we think is right is not always the correct path. I will not consider all these unprayerful actions as evil, as willingly going against the will of the Lord, for He can and many times does take the situation we have placed ourselves in and uses it for our edification, and always for His glory.
If you have placed a great financial burden upon yourself, it does not mean when you cast your cares upon Him that He will shower down money upon you to relieve you of this stress that is causing your fears of the present and possible future, of the cares of an emotionally distraught mind that you have brought upon yourself. One cannot cast something only a short distance and expect it not to return. There are those circumstances that the Most High either allows to enter into our lives, and there are those that He brings, and I believe that you will agree with me here that many of those cares, troubles and concerns we have brought upon ourselves by not seeking His face first.
We are not only logic-based creatures, with the ability to use the cognitive reasoning skills that we have been blessed with, but emotion driven beings as well, and when the two are not combined as a whole, when they are not both used to the fullest functions that we have been blessed with, you will find yourself with more cares than perhaps you believe you can handle.
To cast those cares upon Him means that we do not care about them anymore. Can you do that? Can you truly let go and say, “Thy will be done?” Forgive yourself, forgive others, give those cares to Him and move on. “Thy will be done,” are four words that mean much more than many people seem to realize.
