Cast Your Care

“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”

We live our lives in three major tenses: past, present, and future.  We know the past, we are experiencing the present, and the future is a mystery.  At any moment, something can come up in our present, that brings care and worry to us.  A loss of job, health issue, etc.  It will be resolved at some point in the future, but the time between those two points, and the manner of resolution is completely unknown to us.  In that unknown exist care, and the inability to find or execute a resolution only furthers the care and worry that is created by the situation. These situations are fertile ground for seeds of faith, or seeds of destruction.

When Saul was “little in his own sight” God called him and elevated him to be king over Israel.  During his reign, the Philistine army surrounded him and there was little to no “visible” defense.  The prophet Samuel told Saul to wait on him.  Eventually, the care and anxiety got to Saul and he stepped out of the will of God to do his own will.  God wants us to cast all our care upon him.  This is not a recommendation, but a commandment.  Care can kill.  It can kill your faith, your humility, your relationship with Christ, and even your physical body.  Taking it on and winning over it can hurt you as much as taking it on and crumbling under it.  Like a tale of bricks, if we haul them, they will burden us down; or we try to use them to build a monument to puff us up.  Either way, our cares bring only destruction. When we depend on ourselves, using man’s wit and wisdom there is only ruin.  If we do succeed (weather by might or coercion) it only furthers our own self and pride, pushing us further from the throne.  If we fail, the devil jumps on us and we spiral.   There is no scenario where keeping cares produces a good outcome.  Furthermore, the greater your inability to solve the issue, the greater your care/anxiety over the issue.  Thus, the greater the temptation to “go down to Egypt for help.”  Like Saul, resort to your own self to produce a possible solution, instead of casting your care on him so he can give a permanent solution.  For most of us, it is when we lose control over a situation that we find worry, but if we would but yield control over to God of the situation; we would find peace.  We cast it onto Jesus because he is the only one who can handle it.  He did not say, “when you feel like it cast your care.”  He did not say: “when it’s to much cast your care.”  He said, I want all your care because I care for you.  I love you and I am the one, the only one, who can completely provide for you.  I can do more for you than you can do for yourself. When I look at my two-year-old, the level of trust she has in me, I want to trust God like that.  She believes that I am going to provide for her, protect her, guide her and care for her.  By consequence she has no care.  She is free.  God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  God wants to be our provider and he wants all our cares.  It can be difficult to give God all our care.  Control is something we covet dearly, but this is the very reason why we cast our care; so, God can make himself known to us, and get glory. 

God’s ways are not our way’s.  He doesn’t operate like we do (praise the Lord), and his timing will make you nervous.  The way of casting is a way of faith and trust, but it is also a way of peace.  You can spend your whole life striving, building, and fighting.  Battling for solutions to present problems and planning to avoid future problems.  Or, you can cast your care and let Him guide you; he has the answer and he knows the future.  “Walk by faith and not by sight.”  Trust God and let go.  Cast your care.