DAY 11.
'Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you' 1 Peter 5 v 7 catches my attention today and what a promise it is for us to claim as we tread along life's journey.
That little word 'all' appears again today and what a mighty word it is here in the context that Peter uses it, there is nothing to hard for God and there is nothing to small for Him to deal with.
The truth is we often times seek to deal with our problems, cares and concerns as if we could handle them ourselves with our our Fathers help.
These little problems that are not dealt with properly mount up and gradually entangle us so that we become useless in the harvest field.
The promise here is a personal one 'casting all your' cares, the spiritual life is a personal relationship with God, as we saw in the previous study we are children of the Living God.
He is interested in the whole of our being and knows about the issues that hold us back from full surrender.
He also knows all about the issues that keep tripping us up and longs for us to come to Him so as to know experimentally the solutions.
We are hanging on for grim death instead of letting go so a to allow the mighty Holy Spirit can bear us up and bring us into a life of victory.
Let us look at the word 'cares' a wide all embracing word that covers the whole of our life, the root word is 'anxieties' the small things that distract our attention from concentrating fully on the Lord.
In the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 6 vs.25 – 34 the Master spells out in practical terms the issues that bog us down, care and anxiety that the world faces and does not know how to handle them.
The basic needs of food, water and clothing are three important ones that we all face and that the Lord Jesus deals with.
We remind ourselves that He never had an earthly home of His own, He borrowed a stable to be born in, a donkey to ride into the city on, a tomb of Joseph to rest in.
Borrowed without ever being full of earthly cares because He was living with eternity in view the whole time of His ministry on earth.
We look at the birds of the air and how they survive their time on earth they do not have the problems that human nature surrounds itself with due to the way we live.
The birds do not sow they do not sow the seeds in springtime and get a harvest in the autumn they do not gather crops and to fill barns but the are fed daily by the Lords gracious hands
What a joy it is on ice cold mornings to see them gather on my bird table or from the red berries that attract them to my garden and hear there grateful songs as they devour the food provided for them.
We can go on into the spring months to see these birds flitting around taking their meals as they find them in the garden or hedge rows.
Then look at those beautiful flowers that adorn the garden at spring time and during the summer months they were fed by the unseen hand so that they bloom in there season.
Cannot the Living God provide from His vast unseen resources to meet your needs and to take away your anxiety?
Then look at yourself says the Lord Jesus can any one of you gain height by your own initiative v 27 the little man may want to become a tall man and vice versa but they are unable to change.
Now all our worrying never solves our problems it only wears us out mentally, physically and spiritually, leaving us expressing a down cast person.
Do you think it honours the Father to see miserable grovelling children wandering around as if they were paupers when He has called us heirs and joint heirs with Christ?
Certainly not, He has called us to a life of submission to His will and meeting our need is His responsibility and He uses such experiences as loneliness and carefulness as goads to keep close us to Him.
Now the verse in Peter is a practical one, we are invited to 'cast our cares' on too the Lord, the word 'casting' is linked with throwing a coat across a donkey or horse so at to sit on it.
In other words we throw our anxieties on the Lord so that He will bear the load for us we can come to a place of submission to the Lord Jesus that enables us to do that.
We do not do it by struggling and striving but by putting our reliance on Him to see us through the day that lies ahead of us.
We are not asked to deal with tomorrows problems today but we can solve today's problems so that it does effects tomorrow.
The practical sharing our load with the Lord gives us the added strength of drawing it from Him and the extra delight of our being drawn closer to Him.
The promise then of 1 Peter 5 v 7 is very precious it draws us nearer to Him, we begin to trust and not be afraid as He is in control of our life.
We learn to share our situation with the Lord not as a crutch to lean on but as a confidant who will never let us down or go.
The burden we bear if it causes anxiety needs to be brought to the Lord and give Him time and room to help us, He never gives us burdens to bear without giving the strength, courage and wisdom to fulfil them.
What a precious promise this is that we can bring all our anxieties and cares to the mercy seat before God and find an Intercessor who will graciously bear them up.
Anxiety cause a great deal of harm to those suffering from it but also to those having to deal with them, and it dishonours our God to see His children in that state.
This is a reason why He has given us a precious promises as this in Peter so that we will draw near to Him and yield ourselves to His tender care.
We are not driven away from God by such experiences, He is waiting to hear our voice yielding to His will and purposes
It is there that the 'casting' of our cares is done and the taking up of His purposes for us and that involves holiness and righteous living as a result.
Anxiety reveals a lack of trust in the Lord and points to self still wanting to control our life instead of the Spirit.
The promise we claim has a condition to be countered 'cast all your care on Him' then having done that look up for the Lord to fulfil His promises.
