Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you. (Psalms 55:22)
We continue our series of articles on spending a week without worry by beginning with a verse that echoes the words of Peter that we closed with in Monday’s blog. David, who wrote Psalm 55, knew well that God could be trusted. Peter knew God could be trusted. How is it with you and me? Do we know this truth? Do we live it out in our daily lives?
When Jesus instructed us not to worry in His Sermon on the Mount, he did so by arguing from the lesser to the greater. He said that if God cares for the flowers of the field and the birds of the air, how much more will He care for you and me . . . we who are made in the image of God? Scripture tells us that God cares for everything He created, but man is the pinnacle of creation. God’s people will one day judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). You are the apple of God’s eye. In Monday’s blog, we saw that 1 Peter 5:7 instructs us to “Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” When we keep His care for us in mind, we should be more than willing to cast our cares on Him.
There is another important point from our Lord’s sermon that we should keep in view. Jesus asked, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:27). Worry is a thief. It captures our time and wastes our energy, having no ability to help or change the circumstances we are facing. Worry has no power to prevent anything bad or produce anything good in our lives, no matter how much time we spend engaged in it.
Here are just a few of the damaging effects of worry:
- Insomnia
- Daily fatigue
- Ulcers
- High blood pressure
- Indigestion
- Heart palpitations
As a pastor, I have learned the sad truth that the epitaph Died of Worry could be etched on far too many tombstones. Worry is having a divided mind, and a divided mind is as destructive as it is deadly.
Can you identify any of your own “worry” triggers? Do any of these resonate with you—feelings of powerlessness . . . feeling vulnerable . . . feeling that life is out of control? When you identify some of your triggers, you can be ready to respond appropriately by casting your cares on your Lord before those cares crush you under the weight of worry.
Remember, worry is a choice. You can choose to worry or you can choose not to worry by trusting in the One who can be trusted and who has proven to be trustworthy in the past. In choosing not to worry, you are not ignoring or suppressing those worrisome thoughts. Rather, you are sharing them with your Lord, who has promised to sustain you and care for you. This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 