Casting All My Cares
Dear Friends,
6 So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:6-7 NLT
I’m following Peter’s instructions and I’m casting all my cares (stress, anxiety) on the Lord. I pray that you will cast your cares too.
Carrying our worries, stresses, anxiety, and daily struggles by ourselves shows that we have not trusted God fully with our life or simply have been too distracted to do so. It takes humility, however, to recognize that God cares to admit our need and to let others in God’s family help us. Sometimes we think that struggles caused by our own sin and foolishness are not God’s concern. Please don’t get this twisted.
When we turn to God in repentance, he will bear the weight even of those struggles. Letting God have our stressors, anxieties call for action not passivity. Don’t submit to circumstances, but to the Lord who controls circumstances.
I recently heard an illustration that when filtered through DEA’s world it came out like this…
A father wanted to explain death to his young children. See, their mom had recently gone home to glory. God gave him this illustration—
Father: “Kids do you see that big truck over there at the stop light.”
Kids: In unison the two children replied, “Yes.”
Father: “Do you see the shadow of the truck?”
Kids: Again, in unison, “Yes.”
Father: “Which would you rather be hit by the truck or the shadow?”
Kids: “The shadow; it won’t hurt so much.”
Father: “Yes, just like it says in Psalm 23:4, ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.’” “Remember, getting hit by the shadow doesn’t hurt as much because God is with us.”
GiG, our cares, stressors, worries, anxiety, or depression doesn’t hurt so much when we’re in the valley of the shadow. If we remain in/under His shadow, we don’t take the brunt of whatever is coming our way.
May we be encouraged to remain in the shadow this Christmas and forevermore. When life hurts, it won’t hurt as much and when death comes knocking, it won’t hurt as much either.
God’s Got It… so we can know the TRUTH—God is not punishing us. He is preparing us. Trust his plans not our pain.
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Called to serve and encouraging others to thrive,
DEA: Embracing a Just Be Joyful Life 2020: Laughing, Loving, and Living Life That Extends Far Beyond My Circumstances
