Casting All Your Care Upon HIm

"Casting ALL your care upon him, for he careth for you" I Peter 5:7

     Now this is a lesson that I am trying to learn myself.  Sometimes I too forget that He really does care and that He really does want to share in my burdens.  Im sure that I have "worried a lot of years off of my life," unnecessarily.
     When God puts a pastor and his family at a church, He puts a love in them for all of the people that make up that church.  It is a love that you cant describe.  Ive been a member of a church and known the love of a church family, but when my husband was called to pastor Faith Chapel,  there was an even deeper love for people placed in our hearts.  If your husband has pastored, you know what Im telling to be the truth.  If not, just know that if your pastor was placed in your church under the divine leadership of God, and he is in Gods will, know that he and his family love you.  Because of this love that God has placed in your heart, it is easy to become overwhelmed with your members burdens...... which is exactly where I have been lately.
     It seems that there are times in life that you and everyone that you know and care for are struggling.  Wether it is physically, financially, spiritually, or emotionally.... they are struggling.  And sometimes, since you are the pastor and his wife, you own the set of ears that peoples problems and burdens fall on.  And once it falls on your ears, it just spills down into the heart, flooding it. (Dont get me wrong, a pastor wants to know when the members hurt or are troubled.  He wants to be able to pray for them and to help in any way that he can.  And I believe that God expects us to be a "support system" for our church family, as long as they are striving to live right.)   The past month has been one of "those times."  Problem after problem after burden after hurt have been shared with us.  Then, while trying to pray for our members issues, we ran smack dab into burdens and worries and cares of our own.  Instead of casting my cares upon God, I cast them into my own pockets.  I carried them with me everywhere I went.  Then, last night, straight out of the mouth of babes, I was reminded that I did not have to carry these burdens alone.  Landon came to me after reading his Bible and said, "Momma, I Pet 5:7 says cast ALL your care on him.  So why do people worry about things so much?  If God said ALL, then we shouldnt worry about ANY of them."  Wow.  Ive tried to teach him that all of his life, and now he just reminded me.  So now that you all know why I want to discuss this verse, let's look at it.

     First lets look at the verse before it.  It says "Humble yourselves therefor, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." I Pet 5:6.  Yep this is one of those "if we, then He" that us humans really dont like to hear.  We want God to perform first and if we like what He does then we will follow thru.  Well, it doesnt really work that way.  But how great and grand the promise and reward, if we are willing to follow the precept!

     Now lets look at the following verse.  "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." I Pet 5:8.  So in  verse 6 we are told to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God that we may be exalted in due time; in verse 7 we are told to cast all our care on Him because He cares for us; in verse 8 we are warned to be watchful and on guard because we have an enemy that wants nothing but to destroy us.

     Hmmmmm.  Nestled between instruction and warning is one of the most beautiful promises in the Bible; let Him have all your worries and cares, because he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.  How loving is our father that he would instruct us, make and keep a promise to us, and warn us of the consequences of disobedience.  He doesnt leave us in the dark. 

     Casting all your care on Him does not mean that we will never be unhappy or that we will never experience trials of our faith.  But it does mean that He will never leave us nor forsake us if we will stay in His will. 

     Casting all your care upon Him is usuallly hindered by one of two major reasons.  (1)  We refuse to humble ourselves to God, which includes spending time in His word and in prayer.  We insist on operating under our own strength, which will NEVER work.  (2)  We cant cast all our cares on Him because we are too caught up in seeing what evil folks are "getting away with."   We dont 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 21 where Peter asked the Lord, Lord and what shall this man do?  Jesus answered him If I will that he tarry til I come, what is it to thee?  follow thou me.    In other words, if I want him to stay alive till I come, what business is it of yours?  YOU, follow me!  We must get our eyes off the things of this world and get them on Jesus.  If we allow ourselves to get caught up, we wont cast our cares on Him, we wont humble ourselves to God;  we will become embittered toward God.

     Casting all your car on Him involves self discipline.  What is the point of taking our burdens to the Lord  if we are merely going to pick them right back up and carry them with us again?  The self disciple that we need to stand firm on the promises of God (once again, for your benefit) can not be learned without studying the Word of God.   We must refuse to give into worry and doubt.  Just like bitter and sweet cannot come from the same well, neither can doubt and faith.

     JESUS.   The name above all names.  The name that when spoken, indicates immediate presence of its owner.  He cares for you!  He will never leave you or forsake you.  Your past with him is just that- passed- gone.  He understands more clearly that any other person where we are and what we are going thru.  And He has so much peace to offer.  Cast all your cares upon Him!!!