“Casting all your cares upon Him for He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 NKJV.
Unattended, worries and cares ultimately become anxieties and fears.
My thoughts and comments today are about “worry and fear.”
This date seems to have permanently marked our national consciousness. With the horrific and sobering terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the American assumption of safety and invincibility was sorely shaken. The national psyche was greatly changed and this date has become a metaphor for anxieties and fears. Daily life has been forever altered; borders are seen as vulnerabilities. We feel less safe in our cities or homes. Those insecurities added worries and cares where we previously gave little thought. Yet today, no one enters an airport without some measure of anxiety, if only from the added security procedures necessitated. Again, our world finds itself dealing with extreme religious and ideological differences that threaten our safety.
Whatever the calendar date or international tensions, everyday life holds uncertainties. Worries and cares are not reserved for major events. “Do not worry about your life . . who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Read Matthew 6:25-34 NIV. Worry is an exercise in futility.In the classic children’s book, Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne, there is a character, Eeyore, who is generally characterized as pessimistic, gloomy, and depressed. Eeyore always expected the worse, assuming to foresee anything that could go wrong. Learn from Eeyore; that is a sad and unhappy way to live, for you and others around you. Unattended, worries and cares ultimately become anxieties and fears.
I am not certain how much difference, if any, there is between worries and cares. Both obviously refer to concerns that are unsettling to one’s thoughts and emotions, and they could and would share a common origin. For my purposes, I differentiate this way. Cares are worries that refuse to be resolved or released.
Whether it is worry at the moment or cares that become more rooted with each day, both are disquieting to your spirit and destructive to peace of mind. No one is completely free from them, but there is something you can do about them, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 NAS.
What will you do with your worries and cares? For either or both, God’s answer is simple, “Casting all your every care upon Him for He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7. It really is that easy. Give it away. Your heart doesn’t need it; your friends don’t want it. God will take it. In Paul’s classic discussion of God’s love, he wrote, “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love . . Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away.” Romans 8:38 NLT.
Today, my prayer for you is to know that God cares for you and everything you care about.