“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

When circumstances are difficult, it is easy for us to be anxious and worried. We live in an anxious world. What causes anxieties? Finances, job security, family relationships, peer relationships, and responsibilities that I do not want to lose, results more in anxiety instead of success.  What an ego-centric list!  Anxiety rises over what people might say or not say, over a job evaluation, whether people like you or don't like you.  Are you ever anxious over the things of the Lord?                  

Corrie ten Boom shared an important object lesson. She took her purse and started to take her cares out one by one. She identified the pills, bills, problems, conflicts, she named them has she took the items out. Out came a billfold, flashlight, and more odd and comical things than you would ever dream could come out of a woman's purse. Each article was a care. She started to think about them. She began to worry about the bills.  She picked her billfold up from the table and put it back in her purse, and one by one she picked up each care, and put it back in her purse. At the end of the illustration her purse was again bulging, and she was as loaded down as she had been before she began. We give our burdens to the Lord and pick them up again.           

Warren Wiesbe said God shows His love and care for us when we give our cares to Him. He performs four wonderful ministries on our behalf.

  1. He gives us the courage to face our cares honestly and not run away (Ish. 41:10)
  2. He give us the wisdom to understand the situation (Jms 1:5)
  3. He gives us the strength to do what we must do (Phl. 4:13)
  4. He gives us the faith to trust Him to do the rest (Ps. 37:5).             

In the midst of the humbling process, we are also to learn to cast all our cares and anxieties and worries on Him for He cares for us. Humility recognizes our dependence on God and expresses confidence in Him.             

The late Dr. W. A. Criswell, from First Baptist in Dallas said, "It is for us to dig the well; it is for God to send the rain and the water. It is for us to plant the seed; it is for God to make it sprout and grow. It is for us to cultivate the field; it is for God to give the harvest. It is for me to witness; it is for God to give the increase, to save the soul. When I have done the best I can, then God must do the rest, and He will."

Prayer:   I cast all my cares upon You, Lord.  I lay all of my burdens down at Your feet.  And anytime I don't know what to do, I will cast all my cares upon You.   Lord, whatever it is that is causing me anxiety today, take it out of my hands and into Yours.