Peter’s reason for why we can cast our cares on God is the fact that God cares for us. You can offload a task onto someone else, but the anxiety about it stays on your plate until you are convinced that person is 1) competent and 2) that he cares about it as much as you do. This message will help you go deeper in your understanding of how much God cares about the little things in your life that cause anxiety and offers practical steps for how to cast your anxieties on God.
Excerpt:
If your concept of God's love is easy to understand, then your concept is probably not very accurate, because according to Ephesians 3, understanding the love of God requires a special work of divine enablement.
Ephesians 3:16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power... 17 ...I pray that you ... 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge
It takes a massive work of divine enablement for you to even begin to understand the dimensions of God's love.
1 Peter 5:5 Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Introduction
How many of you would like to reduce the level of anxiety you have been feeling lately? Raise your hand if you would like to feel less anxiety over the next few weeks than you have the last few weeks. It is no shock to anyone to learn that there are a lot of people who are feeling more anxiety than they want to feel. So why don't those people just do what this verse says?
8 cast all your anxiety on him
If they don't want the anxiety, why not just throw it off?
If we found some Christians who struggle with worry and anxiety and asked them that question, what answers do you think they might give? If we are going to obey the command in this verse it is going to have to start with understanding what it means. Obviously it is a figure of speech, right? Peter is quoting Psalm 55:22, except there in the Hebrew it says Cast your burdens on the Lord. That is a figure of speech. Anxiety is not a physical thing like a sack of potatoes that you can just pick up and throw somewhere. Nor is God a physical thing you can throw something onto. So this instruction is meaningless and worthless unless we interpret the figure of speech so we know what it means. And then from there we need to figure out how it is done.
But before we do any of that, let's make sure we know what we are talking about when we speak of anxiety. What is anxiety?
The Meaning of Anxiety
Anxiety is the feeling you get when something you care about might go wrong. God designed us in such a way that when there is something that matters to us that needs our attention, we feel a sense of pressure. And the more the thing matters to us, the more intense that pressure is. That is a gift from God that helps us get moving when we need to take action. If ten days from now your rent is due, and you have no money, you feel pressure on the inside.
"I need to do something about this. I need to earn some money, or borrow some money, or find another place to live, or something."
You have ten people coming over for dinner tonight, and you feel some pressure.
"I need to think of something to cook."
"The car is making a horrible grinding noise - I need to get that checked out."
That tense feeling you have in your stomach - that pressure or distress or feeling of unrest - that is a gift from God to help motivate us to do the things we don't really feel like doing but that need to be taken care of. If you get a rock in your shoe, maybe you don't feel like taking the time to stop and untie your shoe and remove the rock, but physical pain has a way of forcing the issue. And it is the same way with emotional distress. Something needs your attention, and those feelings of distress or pressure keep putting the issue right in front of your face, so you cannot ignore it and you have to take action.
A couple times in the gospels Jesus spoke about "the anxieties of life." Life is jammed full of these anxieties - big and small. Something needs to be done, you feel a sense of unrest until you get it taken care of, so you deal with it, then the anxiety goes away.
Good Anxiety
That is the way God designed anxiety to function, and when it does function that way, it is a good thing. Whenever this word is used in a positive way like that, the translations usually translate it with the word “care” or “concern” instead of "anxiety," but it is the same Greek word.
2 Corinthians 11:28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern (anxiety) for all the churches.
That was a godly anxiety. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul said that a married person should have anxiety about how to please his or her spouse as well as anxiety over how to please God.
Philippians 2:20 I have no one else like [Timothy], who has genuine anxiety about your welfare.
1 Corinthians 12:25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal anxiety for each other.
There is a good kind of anxiety. Feeling a sense of pressure that motivates you to do something you need to do. But in a fallen world, that can go wrong in a lot of ways - just like any other emotion. When wrong attitudes or wrong beliefs take hold in the heart, it results in wrong anxieties that dishonor God and that cause problems for us. And that kind of anxiety is what Paul is talking about in Philippians 4:6 when he says Be anxious for nothing,” and when Jesus says, Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself, those passages are referring to the bad kind.
Out-of-Bounds Anxiety
And as I studied this in Scripture it seems to me there are two main ways anxiety can go bad - two different kinds of sinful anxiety. The first one I will call out-of-bounds anxiety. That is when you worry about things that are not your responsibility - or things you have no control over. If the purpose of anxiety is to get you to take action, there is no value in having anxiety about something that is out of your hands. There is no action to be taken, so anxiety is out of place.
If the issue at hand is a term paper due next week, you should have enough concern about it to get you to set aside the video game and start working on the paper. That is good anxiety. But what if the paper is already turned in, and you are stressed out because you might fail? That is sinful anxiety. There is nothing you can do about it at this point, no action needs to be taken, and so it deserves none of your thoughts or concern.
So any time you feel anxiety about something, ask yourself: "Do I need to take some action?" If the answer is yes, then take action. If the answer is no - if there is nothing you can do about it - then anxiety is inappropriate. It is out of bounds for you to feel pressure or tension or stress about it.
What if you need to take action, but not right now? You need to take some action tomorrow, or later today, but right now you are not in a position to take any action? Then it is still out of bounds.
Matthew 6:34 do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Tomorrow's trouble belongs in tomorrow, not today. So always ask yourself whenever you feel stress, "How much of this problem belongs in this moment here and now?" Answer: Whichever part requires some action. If no action or preparation is possible, it does not belong in this moment and it is out-of-bounds anxiety.
Shows God Untrustworthy
Out-of-bounds anxiety is sinful for a number of reasons. For one thing, it accuses God of being untrustworthy. If something is in God’s hands, and I am all stressed out about it, that is a giant billboard that says, “God cannot be trusted.”
Poor Stewardship
Secondly it is sinful because it is poor stewardship. You only have so much time and energy, and those resources are just like any other resources God has given you - they should be used for God's purposes to advance His kingdom, rather than being squandered. Worrying about something that is out of your control is squandering time and energy that you could be putting into something worthwhile.
Prideful
But the focus of this passage is on the fact that anxiety is sinful because it is a mark of pride toward God. The grammar of verse 7 in the Greek connects the casting of your anxieties with humbling yourself.
1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time 7 casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Humble yourselves ... casting...
It is not two separate ideas. The casting describes the humbling. If you are not casting your anxieties on God, you are not humbling yourself before God. Anxiety over things outside of your control is prideful because it is taking God’s place. If I am worried about anything outside of my realm of responsibility, I am wearing the “I’m God” badge. Whenever I have the sense that those things must go the way I want them to go, I am putting myself in God’s place. Humility says, "God, whatever You decide is fine with me." Pride says, “No! It’s not going to be fine with me unless it goes the way I want." Proud people have a lot of anxiety because it is stressful trying to run the universe - especially when you do not have infinite wisdom and omnipotent power.
In some ways anxiety is similar to self-condemnation. In both cases you are looking to yourself for the solution to a God-sized problem. With self-condemnation the problem is your guilt. With anxiety it is some other problem. But no matter what the problem, looking to yourself as the solution is a mark of pride toward God.
Past, Present, and Future
Anxiety can be focused on the past, present or future. You can be stressed out over something that has already happened. Someone hurt you, stole from you, lied to you - and you feel inner turmoil every time you think of it. Or it can be the present. Some really hard thing exists in your life right now, and whenever you think about it your stomach knots up.
It is fine to be sad, it is appropriate to groan in your suffering like Jesus did, but pride takes it further and rejects what God is doing. Or it can be future - worrying about what might happen potentially not matching up with your desires.
Out-of-Balance Anxiety
So all of that is one kind of sinful anxiety – out-of-bounds anxiety. The other kind we could call out-of-balance anxiety. This is anxiety over things that are within your realm of responsibility, but that goes beyond appropriate levels. It is something you need to be concerned about, but you are more concerned than you should be. If you are going to have some people over, it is good to have enough concern to motivate you to go to the grocery store and make some preparations. But if you are so concerned about it that you are up all night sweating great drops of blood, that is too much concern. That means you care too much about this meal. We have a lot of things we need to be concerned about, and when small concerns start to crowd out big, more important concerns in our affections, we are out of balance. The classic example of this kind of anxiety is Martha.
Luke 10:38 As Jesus ... came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. ... 41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better
That word translated worried is the same word for anxiety. Making preparations and getting the food ready was Martha’s area of responsibility. That was her job, so it was appropriate for her to have some feelings of pressure in that area to get her to get busy and get things prepared. That is a good thing. But in her case it got so far out of balance that getting the food ready occupied a bigger place in her heart than interaction with Jesus! The small things were bigger in her heart than the big things. That is out-of-balance anxiety.
And what is the result of that? Look at verse 40 - she became distracted.
Luke 10:38 As Jesus ... came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. ... 41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better
Out-of-balance anxiety causes you to be distracted from the most important things. And it also makes you upset — look at verse 41.
Luke 10:38 As Jesus ... came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. ... 41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better
That word upset means to be agitated, disturbed, troubled - inner turmoil.
This is how we develop wrong priorities. Priorities are driven by anxieties. When you care more about small things than you care about big things, you neglect the big things. This is the problem with perfectionism. Perfectionists are usually only perfectionistic in little, temporal things, not big, eternal things. The interior of their car is immaculate, but their Bible has dust on it. Their yard is perfect, but their marriage is dilapidated. They are perfectionists building a bench or organizing a closet, but not in encouraging a weak brother, or dealing with their anger problem. They will cut corners on their prayer time to make a project at work perfect, but not the other way around.
Out-of-balance anxiety will neglect the most important things, and in the process you tend to become irritable, easily angered, easily annoyed, resentful, and distracted. And everyone knows that is a bad thing. Even the world sees that as a huge problem. Our society spends $15 billion/year on anxiety medication. (And that doesn’t count alcohol and illegal drugs.) We are the most mood-medicated generation that has ever existed. And if all that stuff worked at all you would think we would be the calmest, least-stressed generation ever. But we aren’t. We are probably the most anxious, tense, worried, upset, distressed, worked-up, stressed-out, generation ever. The $15 billion each year has gotten us nowhere.
Wrong Solutions
Medication
You can take drugs that will have the effect of deadening all your emotions - so you have less anxiety , but you also end up with less passion for God, less joy, less drive, less hope, less love, less fear of God - less everything. It is kind of like taking morphine when you have an infection. It dulls the pain, but it doesn't cure the problem. Spiritual problems are not cured with chemicals.
Indifference
Drugs are not the long term solution. Neither is indifference. Sometimes people think the solution to sinful anxiety is the elimination of all anxiety - even the good kind. Get rid of all inner tension or pressure, so you feel nothing but tranquility. The rent is due in ten days, you have no money, and you just say, "Oh well," and put it out of your mind. No more stress, no more pressure, no more anxiety - just inner tranquility. Now you have nothing driving you to take action, and so you don’t take any action, and ten days later you are living on the street. Lack of concern altogether is not a good thing.
Ezekiel 16:49 Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
When you see the plight of the poor and needy, you shouldn’t be unconcerned. You shouldn’t be tranquil on the inside. That’s a mark of arrogance. It says they were arrogant and unconcerned. If I’m indifferent to evil and I don’t allow the problems of people around me to touch my heart, that’s arrogance.
When something needs to be done, we should feel enough pressure to move us to action. Otherwise you will have inner peace right up until your whole life becomes a complete train wreck.
The Right Solution: Cast Anxiety on God
So if indifference is not the solution, and drugs will not solve the problem, what is the solution to anxiety?
7 Cast all your anxiety on him
Throw it onto God. Peter does not say, “Have a glass of wine for your stomach’s sake.” He does not say, “Breath through your nose and count to ten,” or, “Light some candles and take a bath,” or, “Get some exercise,” or, “Vent your frustrations.” The solution to anxiety is to throw it onto God.
So what does that mean? Does it mean we are giving God an assignment? “God, this is now Your responsibility?” No - it was God’s responsibility all along. God has already promised to take care of everything - He does not need our permission to go ahead and run the universe.
So what does it mean to cast or throw our anxieties? Does that mean just simply decide not to be anxious anymore? Is Peter giving us shallow, superficial advice here?
“You have an unpleasant feeling? Anxious, worried, depressed, sad, afraid - just fling the feelings away and you’ll be just fine.”
Everyone who has experienced anxiety knows that doesn't work. You cannot just throw off anxiety. It is like throwing away a piece of double-stick tape. No matter how hard you throw, it sticks to you.
The only way throwing off anxiety will work is if you throw it onto God. Throw them anywhere else and they will stick to you. It only works if you throw them upon Someone who can take care of them.
How? By Faith
“How do I do that?”
The long answer is the sermon series we did when we studied through Matthew 6:25-34. If you struggle with worry or anxiety, I would strongly urge you to go through those three sermons and study that portion of Scripture at the end of Matthew 6. I am not going to take the time to repeat all that we learned in that study. But I will give you the bottom line. It is all about trusting God. If you want to know how to throw your anxiety off onto God, you need to understand that throwing motion – that is the activity of faith. Only faith can break the bond of the stickiness of anxiety so you can throw it off.
You Have to be Confident It Will Be Taken Care of
When something is important to you, you will not be able to let it go until you are confident that it is going to be taken care of. For example, I really wanted us to have a whole church retreat this year. It matters a lot to me - I really want it to happen. I think it will do a lot of good for us as a church family at this time. The responsibility for that falls under Sam, because he oversees events at Agape.
And Sam is on board with the whole idea, but imagine he were not. Imagine Sam did not like the idea, did not really care about it, it didn't matter to him if anyone went or how it worked out. He agrees to do it because it is his job, but he has no enthusiasm about it at all. If that were the case, then the work would be on his plate, but the anxiety would still be on my plate. I would have to be the one worrying about making sure it happened and worked out well. And I might be looking over his shoulder, making sure it happens. The stress and worry about how it turns out does not leave my plate until I am confident it is in the hands of someone who will take it seriously.
Thankfully, Sam does care about the retreat so I do not have to give it any thought at all. He probably will not do it the way I would do it, but that’s fine. As long as I am convinced it is in the hands of someone who is competent and who will take it seriously, I can relax.
To cast your cares on God, you have to become convinced that God is both competent and concerned. Most of us understand his competence, but we very often struggle to believe that He cares. And so that is the part that Peter wants to remind us about.
He Cares For You
7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Lit. It matters to Him about you.
The key to dealing with anxiety is convincing yourself of that. If you have anxiety about something right now it is because that thing could potentially go bad, and if it does there will be a bad outcome for you or someone you love. And so there is no way your heart is going to let go of that anxiety until it is convinced it is in the hands of someone who can be trusted to take care of it. And if God is ultra-powerful, but He does not really care about me, then I cannot trust Him with it, which means the anxiety stays on my plate.
So, that thing you are stressed out about - does God really care about that? What kinds of concerns in your life does God care about? Does He care about whether or not you get married, and who you marry? Does He care about what car you drive? Does He care about what size TV you have, and whether it is HD or not? Does He care if you get a hangnail or a pimple or what score you get on Tetris? At what level does God begin caring about things?
There Is No Bottom Limit to What God Cares About
Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Now I know some of us are a little self-conscious about our bald spot or hair line. Some of you might even be obsessed with how you look. But even those people don’t count every hair. Not even the most vain, self-absorbed person actually makes a daily hair count. God does. Most of us, right now, have about 75 fewer strands than we had yesterday. God actually paid attention when each one of those came loose. What is the point of that? Hair is a big deal to God? He’s really into hair? No, the point is simply this - there is no bottom limit to the things God cares about in your life. Nothing is too small.
God Cares About Everything You Care About
Think about the logic of this verse. We are to cast our anxieties on God because He cares. If there is such a thing as an anxiety that I have that God does not care about, then the logic of the verse breaks down. God caring is the reason I can cast anxiety on Him. Therefore God must care about everything you ever have anxiety about - otherwise this verse would not work.
"I get anxiety about some pretty dumb things - why would God care about those things?"
Just because they are bothering you. Peter does not say, “Cast your anxieties on God because he cares about them.” He says, “Cast your anxieties on God because he cares for you.” If you got news that some hamster is dying somewhere in the world yesterday, you wouldn't give it a second thought. But what if it is your little daughter's pet hamster, and she is brokenhearted and sobbing and crying? Now you care about that hamster. Why? Because hamsters are important to you? No, because your daughter is important to you. All it takes to make something matter to you is if it has the potential to cause a lot of pain to your child.
God Cares About Everything That Affects Your Wellbeing
So one criterion for whether God cares about something is if you care about it. Another thing that will cause God to care about something in your life is if it has an impact on your wellbeing - whether you care about it or not. If someone is about to run over your child, you care deeply about that even if your child does not see it coming. A loving father cares about two things - anything that matters to his child, and anything that has to do with his child's wellbeing. And God is the same way. “He cares for you” means He cares about what you care about and He cares about anything that could harm you or do you good.
Unique to Yahweh
That was a totally foreign idea in the pagan world in Peter's day. The pagan religions taught that one of the chief attributes of the gods was apathy - no feelings of compassion. They believed the compassion is a part of human weakness, and so the gods did not have that. So the gods were indifferent to human suffering. And for the most part, that is still true. I don't know of any religion or any religious book other than the Bible that teaches the concept of a compassionate God. In human religion, you have to scratch God’s back in order to get Him to scratch yours. You have to do something to make Him care. Either that or God is thought of as just some impersonal force that is not even capable of emotion. Satan fights hard to keep people from knowing the truth about what God is like, and he has been very successful in our culture.
But whether people know it or not, the truth is, God is compassionate. That is one of the most fundamental truths about Himself that He ever revealed. When Moses asked to see God’s glory, God passed in front of him and said, "Yahweh, Yahweh, compassionate and gracious...” (Ex.34:6). That is the summary of what God is like, and that summary is repeated over and over throughout the Old Testament. His compassion is the first thing in the list. You will never be able to get the anxiety off your plate until you become convinced that God cares.
Unfathomable
How deep is your understanding of God's love for you? I would venture that most Christians would say, “That’s something I understand. That’s not complicated - Jesus loves me - simple as can be.” If your concept of God's love is easy to understand, then your concept is probably not very accurate, because according to Ephesians 3, understanding the love of God requires a special work of divine enablement. Look at verse 16.
Ephesians 3:16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power...
Why? What do we need all this power for? Look at verse 18.
17 ...I pray that you ... 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge
It takes a massive work of divine enablement for you to even begin to understand the dimensions of God's love. You all know something of God’s love. You understand that He has acted favorably toward you, even to the point that Jesus died for you. But what Paul is praying for here goes way beyond that. God’s love for you is an ocean. We have been paddling around by the beach; some have ventured out over their heads – maybe even 50 or 100 yards from shore. But out in the middle of the ocean of God’s love there are depths infinitely beyond anything we have ever conceived. There are things about God’s love that are possible to know that are far beyond anything you or I have ever imagined. How much does God care about the puny little worries in your life? How much does He care for you? His love is so vast that for you to get even a glimpse of what it is like requires God to do something like what He did when He parted the Red Sea. When you think of whatever understanding you currently have about God's love for you - would it take a mighty act of God like that for a person to have that level of knowledge? If not, then you are not there yet.
In Scripture we read about God being moved emotionally when He sees one of His people hungry or thirsty or tired or sick or scared or overwhelmed or treated unfairly. He even has compassion on us when we sin. Scripture teaches that when you sin against God, it puts you in such a bad position that it actually causes God to have feelings of compassion for you (Ps.51:1). Psalm 103:13 says He has the same kind of feelings of compassion for you that you have for your children. You want to know how much God cares when you have a hard time? You want to know how much your puny little concern touches His emotions?
Psalms 18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice ... 7 The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry. 8 Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. 9 He parted the heavens and came down; ... 13 The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.
God gets worked up when someone hurts you.
36 You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.
Just take a second and glance down at your ankle. Did you know that God cares about that thing?
Psalm 91:11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways 12 ... so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
God sends angels from heaven to protect you from stubbing your toe! Why?
Isaiah 62:5 As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
Jeremiah 32:41 I will rejoice in doing them good ... with all my heart and soul.
Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God…will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.
Isaiah 30:18 the LORD longs to be gracious to you
That means when it is time for you to suffer for some good purpose, God cannot wait for it to be over.
How high and wide and long and deep is God's love? With regard to time, it is eternal. if you are a Christian, God never began loving you. One hundred trillion years before the creation God loved you. He knew what color your hair would be, your favorite food, your private sins, your greatest strength - every single one of your failures. Psalm 139 says every day of your life was written in His book before one of them came to be. And knowing all that He had deep affection for you.
With regard to intensity, God's delight in you is more emotionally powerful than the most intense kind of love you have ever felt for anyone. With regard to longevity, His love for you will never fade. Even when you provoke His anger, when you return to Him, He sees you at a distance and throws open His arms and runs to you like the father of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Sometimes we think of God’s love as a smoldering wick that gets doused whenever we sin. It is not. If your sin is like a glass of water, God’s love is like the sun.
With regard to variety...
Lamentations 3:22 his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning
With regard to generosity, He always gives way more than we can even receive. Scripture speaks of
- the overflowing riches of the grace of God (Ro.5:15, Eph.1:8)
- overflowing hope (Ro.15:13)
- overflowing comfort from God (2 Co.1:5)
- overflowing glory (2 Co.3:9)
- overflowing joy (2 Co.8:2, Php.1:26)
- overflowing ability to do good works (2 Co.9:8)
- overflowing love, knowledge and depth of insight (1 Thes.3:12, Php.1:9)
With regard to expression, God has made His love for you clear in non-stop gifts. He has given you
- new life
- righteousness
- forgiveness of sins
- the Holy Spirit
- countless promises of blessing,
- spiritual gifts
- a role in the Kingdom of God
- the privilege of serving Him & knowing Him
- He has adopted you into His family
- sanctification
- He has promised to prepare a place for you and come back for you and bring you to be with Him forever
- He has given you a church family
- He has given you the Holy Scriptures
- An inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade
- The secrets of the mystery of the Kingdom...
With regard to security...
Romans 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And everything in that whole list we can understand on the surface, but it takes a mighty act of divine power for us to understand the depth of each one.
1 Kings 10:8 Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you …Because of the LORD's eternal love for (you)
Conclusion: Cast Cares on the Lord One at a Time
Someone once asked George Mueller how he could handle all the stresses of the massive responsibilities that were upon him.
“I do not carry the burden. ... It is not only permission, but positive command that He gives, to cast the burdens upon Him. ... Day by day I do it. This morning sixty matters in connection with the church of which I am pastor, I brought before the Lord.”
Why not begin and end each day by intentionally casting your anxieties on God by name one at a time. Name the anxiety, talk to God about how competent He is and how much He cares, entrust it to His hands, and then move to the next one. Let God bear the weight of those concerns.
And then take time to thank God ahead of time for however He is going to decide to handle the situation.
Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Hannah
In 1 Samuel 1:5, the mighty hand of God was upon Hannah. God had closed her womb (1 Samuel 1:5). She could not bear children – the ultimate disgrace in that culture. Hannah was devastated over it so she goes to the Temple to pray. She pours out the anguish of her heart to God in prayer. In verses 10-18 she casts her anxieties on God.
1 Samuel 1:18 …Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
She still wasn’t pregnant. But she had cast her anxiety on the one who cared for her and she trusted Him, and the peace of God swept through her heart.
Are you under the mighty hand of God right now? Stop resisting, accept what God is doing, humble yourself under His mighty hand - casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
Benediction: 2 Thessalonians 3:16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.
1:25 Questions
1) Which is more of a problem for you – out-of-bounds anxiety (worrying about things outside of your area of responsibility) or out-of-balance anxiety (worrying too much about things within your area of responsibility)?
2) Can you pinpoint any ill-effects out of balance anxiety has had on your priorities?
3) Is there a particular anxiety you are finding it hard to cast upon the Lord? Let the group help you think through God's compassion for you in that area, so that you will be able to entrust it to Him with peace of mind.
