Just stand

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. (I Peter 5:7)

All, not just some. Give them all to God. Seems easy enough, right? Nope! It isn't all that easy because we have this tendency to 'hold onto' just a few more worries than we should. The trouble with that is we aren't allowing the one who can 'take care' of them to handle them. Taking on the burden of those cares is not our 'duty' or even our 'privilege'. It is sin! God tells us to give him all our cares, so when we hold onto them so tightly, worrying them along, we get buried under a load of weight, some of which is the guilt we experience by not letting them go. 

Our shoulders weren't meant to bear that burden. All we can do in life is our 'best', then we leave the rest to Jesus. If we have done our part, we need to allow him to do his. The issue comes when we think 'our part' goes way beyond where it should go. Our 'best' is done now, then Jesus does his best as things unfold. The obedience we manifest today might not solve all the problems we are facing, but that tiny bit of obedience today leads to God's big interventions tomorrow and on down the road. We need to learn that God really does care about us - these are more than mere words that sound good. They are truth and we need to allow them to become reality in our lives.

I have frequent spoken of roots - deep roots find what they are after - nourishment and refreshment. God's plan is for troubles or worries to drive our roots deeper, but too frequently we focus on the problem and forget that we could tap into something much greater than the problem if we just keep ourselves 'rooted' in Jesus. Truth is that we rarely get life 'perfect', right? If we do our best, then give God the ability and 'permission' to actually do what he does best, we might just find ourselves a little less anxious, more at peace with our circumstances, and deeply 'solid' in our faith. 

When we have done all God asks, then we stand. We stand in faith, stronger than we look, and even stronger than we may feel at times. God will work out the rest, but we have to give him the chance to do 'his thing'. It is likely time we all learn to trust God with what we cannot do, what we might have tried to 'overdo', and just stand. Just sayin!

I need a bit of peace here

 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

I imagine one of the hardest things we can 'learn' in life is the act of trusting when you aren't too sure what is going on around or within you. Some of our worries and anxieties are because there are numerous external forces at work that we see, but may not fully understand. At others, our worries are much more 'covert' - we 'feel' them, but we don't have a clue why they are there. These can be a result of circumstances, but they can also be a result of some internal conflict that is putting our emotions through their paces.

How does one get to the place of 'not worrying' when life seems to be creating chaos, or our emotions are in a muddle? If you are like me, your first inclination may be to withdraw a bit in the midst of emotional chaos - choosing a place of solitude until you can get through the turmoil. I find myself sending up a few quick words of prayer, seeking God's wisdom to recognize the source of my worries, and then I just listen. That may seem a bit passive to you, but God never fails to bring peace when I 'settle in' to his presence and just let him have his way.

His peace is a great guard over our hearts - this means our emotions don't have to run amuck in our lives. We can go to him, drawing close through prayer, praise, and recalling his Word, then just listen to hear his stillness 'speak' into our lives. God's voice is 'still' and it is powerful. We must not circumvent this stillness - it has more power than any amount of 'busyness' we can put ourselves through in order to 'escape' our emotions and worries. If we desire peace, we find it in him. If we want power, it is never in the things we sheme to do to counter our worries - it is found in the stillness of his presence and the 'refilling' of our lives with his love, joy, and absolute peace. Just sayin!

I will cast my cares on you

So, humble yourselves under God’s strong hand, and in his own good time he will lift you up. You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him, for you are his personal concern.  (I Peter 5:6-7 PHILLIPS)  

There is a song which comes to me, many times in the wee hours of the dark night when I am just there in bed, awake for no apparent reason with my head rushing from one thought to another.  It is the song "Cast My Cares".  The chorus is my favorite part of the song: "I will cast my cares on you. You're the anchor of my hope, the only one who's in control. I will cast my cares on you. I'll trade the troubles of this world for your peace inside my soul."  The song is written by Blake Neesmith, Casey Brown, and Sam Tinnesz - three individuals singing as "Finding Favour".  I am not sure why this song repeatedly comes to mind in those hours, but I think you know where I am going with this - those things running around in my head aren't going to be "fixed" because I am losing sleep ruminating on them!  When I place them squarely into the strong hands of Jesus, they are lifted from my mind, releasing my body (and soul) to finally rest.

The words of the chorus which speak the loudest to me in the "quietest of times" are the ones about God being the anchor of my hope - the only one who is actually totally in control!  Why do those words mean so much to me?  I am one of those people who thinks they can find the solutions to things - and many times God guides me to do just that.  I can never forget he is the one guiding me into those solutions, though!  It isn't because I "control" the situation, or really influence the outcome.  It is simply me yielding to his direction, giving way to his plans - this how the the solutions come.

An anchor holds one firm - so the things attempting to set us adrift don't actually accomplish that feat.  When an anchor is firmly planted, it has the ability to hold well beyond the weight of the anchor.  I am amazed at the "smallness" of the anchor in comparison to the "vastness" of the ship!  It isn't the size of the anchor, it is the "hold" the anchor obtains when it is allowed to do what it was designed to do.  When we anchor our thoughts in Christ, we find our mind wanders less into places it should not be, entertaining thoughts not meant for us to entertain.  When we anchor our hope in Christ's ability and not our own, we find we have a hold not easily broken, even when the realization of the goal is still not present with us.

As our passage points out today, we are the object of God's personal concern (his personal care).  The "casting" of one's cares upon him is really allowing our hearts, minds, and souls to take "anchor" in the "solidness" of his care.  We stop trying to find "anchor" in our own solutions, and we allow the "hold" we seek to be found in him.  We can try to figure life out on our own, or we can allow our lives to be kept from being set adrift by anchoring into the hope we have in his ability and carefulness over our lives.  I choose the latter - even if it means I have to keep reminding myself where my anchor is secured over and over again until my mind catches up with my heart!  Just sayin!