Upon Him...
and to day, and for ever.
Hebrews 13:8
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty
hand of God,that he may exalt you in due
time: Casting ALL your care upon him;
for he careth for you.
I Peter 5:6,7.
What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust;
I will NOT FEAR what flesh can do unto me.
Psalm 56:3,4.
Rejoice in the Lord ALWAY:
and again I say, Rejoice. Let your
moderation be known unto all men. The Lord
is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests
be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all
understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:4-7.
What does it mean? It means, simply: "Leave all your anxieties and worries, your grief and pain, that which causes you despair and heartbreak, with Him because He cares for you!"
While I Peter 5:7 is a VERY significant scripture, let's also look at the verse before it: Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Another promise--another condition: He will "exalt us" (in due time) IF we will "humble ourselves". You know, that ole' IF You, THEN God thing that we dislike so much. We humans always want God to "perform" first, then if we "like" what He does, we will follow through. It doesn't work that way, my friends. How grand the promise, if we are willing to follow the precept!
Casting All Your Care Upon Him...
is followed by Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. I Peter 5:8. So in I Peter 5:6 we are told to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so we may be exalted in "due time"; in I Peter 5:7 we are told we can cast ALL our care upon Him because He cares for us; in I Peter 5:8 we are warned to be sober and vigilant (ever watchful and on our guard) because we have an enemy--an adversary--the devil, who is constantly on the outlook for someone to destroy.
Nestled between instruction and warning is one of the most beautiful promises of the entire Bible: "Let him have all your worries and cares, for he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you." (The Living Bible). What a complete and loving Father we have! He not only instructs, He promises (and fulfills those promises!!!), and also lets us know the consequences of disobedience. He doesn't "leave us in the dark", friends! I care not the rank, title or position: those who say the Word of God is "impossible to understand" have never spent much time with it!
Allow me to give you another example: As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. IF ye keep my commandments, ye SHALL abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be FULL. John 15:9-11. See it there? Jesus LOVES us, and IF we are willing to follow His commandments, we SHALL abide in His love and we SHALL remain FULL of His joy. Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with JOY UNSPEAKABLE and FULL OF GLORY: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:8,9.
Casting All Your Care Upon Him...
does NOT mean you will never be unhappy or that you will never experience trials of your faith. What it DOES mean, though, is that you have the guarantee of God through His Word that He will never leave nor forsake you. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them. Deuteronomy 4:29-31. See it there? Precept: if thou turn to the Lord thy God and be obedient unto his voice. Promise: He will not forsake thee.
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Deuteronomy 31:6. "But that's in the Old Testament, it was God talking to the Hebrew children." Try this on for size, then: Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will NOT FEAR what man shall do unto me. Hebrews 13:5,6.
Again we have the Promise: That we may BOLDLY say, The Lord is my helper, and I will NOT FEAR what man shall do unto me. The Precept: Let your conversation be without covetousness (don't want what others have); be content with such things as ye have. That doesn't mean you can't have nice clothes, a lovely house, a dependable car! What it means is, don't let your greed for the things of this world overtake serving the Lord with all your might.
Casting All Your Care Upon Him...
is usually hindered by one of two major reasons: (1) we refuse to humble ourselves to God, which includes spending time in studying His Word to us, and time in prayer to Him. We insist on operating under our own strength (and/or authority)--it will NEVER work, my friends. In the first place, we don't have the strength in and of ourselves to overcome the storms of life (and we sure don't have the authority in and of ourselves to quell them!). Oh, we may outlast them, but how bruised and battered we allow ourselves to be, because we refuse to humble ourselves to God in prayer, we refuse to find out and follow His Will for our lives. And how do we find out His Will for our lives? In the WORD OF GOD.
And (2) we can't cast all our cares upon Him because we're too caught up in seeing what evil (unrighteous) folks are "getting away with"! Yet we are warned: Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he SHALL give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he SHALL bring it to pass. Psalm 37:1-5. Now read it again for good measure unto your soul. See it again in there? Commit thy way unto the Lord: the same thing as Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God. I Peter 5:5 tells us, ...God resisteth the proud, and giveth GRACE to the humble. Proverbs 3:34 tells us, ...he giveth grace unto the lowly.
We don't need to get caught up in the trap of envying the unrighteous, or trying to justify our wrongdoing by theirs!!! God will take care of them! Remember in John (Chapter 21: 20-22) where Peter asked the Lord, Lord, and what shall this man do? How did Jesus answer him? If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou ME. In other words, "If I want him to stay alive until I come again, what business is it of yours? YOU follow ME!" We need to mind our own business, my friends. We don't need to be trying to tell God how to conduct His affairs, we have enough trouble with our own. We MUST get our eyes off the things of this world; we MUST reevaluate the importance we have attached to material possessions in this life. Even preachers and pastors and teachers can only OFFER--they cannot force feed. We can only share with you what the Holy Spirit has laid on our heart and ask that you search the scriptures for yourself.That's why God gave us the ability to make choices and it's up to each of us to individually choose.
My friends, we MUST hold to the Word of God! We need to get our eyes off the world and the things of the world and get them on Jesus Christ! If we allow ourselves to get caught up in what this one has or that one is getting away with, we won't "cast our cares upon Him"--we won't humble ourselves to God: we will become embittered toward God.
All the wonderfully fine fripperies of this life--oh how appealing they are! Psalms 37:7,8 tells us, Rest in the Lord, and WAIT PATIENTLY for him: fret NOT thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in ANY WISE to do evil. The New International Bible puts those two verses this way: "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret--it leads only to evil." AND it keeps us from casting ALL our cares upon Him.
Casting All Your Care Upon Him...
requires faith in God. When we are born again by salvation through Jesus Christ, each of us is given a "measure of faith". If we were not, we'd never believe we'd been saved, Amen? Now ponder this: there is no greater miracle ever to be known than the miracle of salvation through Jesus Christ. To have had our sins, the wages of which we so richly deserve, taken from us by He Who is without sin--it is humanly impossible to adequately fathom the depths and heights and widths of such a marvel!
IF we are able to say, "I have been redeemed," by the blood of The Lamb, it is to speak of the greatest miracle of all: salvation through Jesus Christ. And IF we are able to claim such a work in our lives, it is only through what? F-A-I-T-H. That is then how we "cast all our cares upon Him"--through faith. Faith that He IS Able to do just what He says He will: exalt us (lift us up), His joy will remain full, He shall strengthen our heart, He shall sustain us, the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep our hearts and minds, He will never leave us nor forsake us, He shall give us the desires of our hearts.
Sure, it's hard for these old physical bodies and minds to cope with the many things we may encounter in our lives. Devastating loss, chronic illnesses, rejection, loneliness, seeing how the meanest of the mean seem to have so much and try as hard as we will, we barely get by! Yet we have a loving Savior who did NOT complete only a plan of salvation and then say, "Well, you're on your own now. Good luck!" No, no, no! Despite ALL that could ever befall us, He tells us time and time again in His Written Word to us, "Come unto me," "Give me your burdens," "Cast ALL your care upon me".
In I Peter 5:1, every version of the Bible includes that word, "ALL": ALL our care.... Despite our very best intentions, neither you nor I can say to someone, "Bring me ALL your worries, sickness, problems, and I'LL fix them." Yet we have a loving Savior Who has the solution for ALL that ever besets us. Why? Because He cares for us! He goes beyond salvation to everlasting love and care for us!
Far too many times we get all caught up in voicing our complaints, instead of using that SAME ENERGY to pray to The ONE Who can do something about our situation! We completely forget about "faith": we allow fear, worry and doubt to set in and they invite despair and defeat to come along! The Word of God tells us, Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he SHALL strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. Psalm 27:14. And we have Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he SHALL sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. Psalm 55:22.
The use of the word "shall" in those verses is not accidental, my friends! The use of the word "will" (in the third person, such as "he will") indicates what is known as "simple futurity"--expectation or anticipation of something to happen. However, the word "shall" was used: ...and he SHALL strengthen thine heart...he SHALL sustain thee... Using "shall" in the third person expresses "promise, determination, guarantee of assurance": ...he SHALL never suffer the righteous to be moved !! This is just another of the countless reasons to study the Word of God. Nothing is there by accident! The words didn't just "fall into place"!
Casting All Your Care Upon Him...
involves self-discipline. What is the point of "taking our burdens to the Lord" if we are going to merely pick them back up and carry them away with us again? The self-discipline we need to exercise is to stand firm on the promises of God (once again, for your benefit: you can't know them if you don't learn them--you can't learn them if you don't study the Word of God!). We simply MUST refuse to give in to worry and doubt! Just as bitter and sweet canNOT come from the same well, neither can doubt and faith!
Casting All Your Care Upon Him...
does not mean "take it to Jesus" and then discuss all the negative aspects of whatever it is with everyone you meet. Of course, if you do refuse to discuss all the negativity that "could be", you will greatly reduce the amount of time spent commiserating with someone about just how "bad off" we are, that my sickness is much worse than yours. Pity parties will die a natural death.
Casting All Your Care Upon Him...
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, oh that name above ALL names! That name that indicates the immediate presence of Its Owner. He cares for you! He will NEVER leave you nor forsake you. Your past with Him is just that: passed--gone. He lived a mortal's life on this earth--He suffered temptation, sorrow, grief, anger, heartbreak, pain. He understands, oh more clearly than any other person anywhere ever could! He wants to love you--He wants you to love Him! HE, Himself made the offer: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30. It's up to you to accept. You CAN cast ALL your care upon Him...
"Casting All Your Care..." Copyright © 2001 by Patricia Sikes.
All Rights Reserved.
He Keeps Me Singing
There's within my heart a melody--Jesus whispers sweet and low,
"Fear not I am with you, peace be still," in all of life's ebb and flow.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest name I know!
Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go.
All my life was wrecked by sin and strife; discord filled my heart with pain.
Jesus swept across the broken strings, stirred the slumb'ring chords again.
Feasting on the riches of His grace, resting 'neath His shelt'ring wing;
Always looking on His smiling face--that is why I shout and sing.
Though sometimes He leads through waters deep; trials fall across the way--
Though sometimes the path seems rough and steep, see His footprints all the way.
Soon He's coming back to welcome me far beyond the starry sky;
I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown--I shall reign with Him on high.
Words and melody by Luther B. Bridgers (1884-1948)
Luther B. Bridges was a Methodist pastor and evangelist from Georgia. While he was away from home conducting revival services in Kentucky, his wife and three sons died in a fire at her parents' home. He is credited with having written this lovely song shortly after that tragedy in his life. Surely only through having cast ALL his care upon the Lord could such a declaration as this song be penned.
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