Life
will never be successful unless we learn to let God care
for us. Unless we have faith to know that God is our
keeper and that hence we have nothing to fear, we shall
never be the cheer and sunlight in this dark world that
God designed us to be. This is a world of trouble. Sin
envelops many souls in awful midnight gloom. Some may
never find Jesus unless they see him smiling in your face.
You as God's dear child are to be a light to those poor,
benighted souls. To be such a light, you must be full of
light, and to be full of light you must be full of hope by
faith in the cheering and encouraging promises of God.
None can be truly happy, none can be the cheer, comfort,
and consolation to the world, who are bearing their own
burdens. Only those who have learned the sweet lesson of
trust in God and know that he cares for them are truly
happy and free and capable of cheering others.
He who this one short life would live
As heaven has designed
Must scatter rays of cheering light
From a heart with Hope enshrined.
There are many priceless promises
in the Word of God. There is a promise for every need,
condition, and circumstance of life. Among these blessed
promises, here is one that has brought comfort to many a
weary pilgrim on life's way: "Casting all your care
upon him; for he careth for you." 1 Pet. 5:7. If this
promise does not lift you far above all the trials,
discouragements, and weariness of life, it is because you
do not believe it nor understand the fullness of its
meaning. "He careth for YOU." It is not your
neighbor or your friend, but it is you. Cares will come to
you, certainly; you could never cast your cares upon God
if you had none. But you have them and doubtless many of
them. The difficulty with many is, they do not cast them
on God. Reader, your life will never be, it can not be,
that free, happy, radiant, sunlit, helpful life that
pleases God, if you bear your own cares.
There is nothing too trivial in
life to take to God. In the very smallest concerns of your
daily life He has an interest. In everything let your
requests be known unto Him. Do learn to take everything to
Him. Fret over nothing, never worry for a moment. Let
nothing disturb or disquiet you. I say nothing. "He
careth for you." Do you comprehend the full meaning
of these words? Think them over for a moment. Let go of
yourself and let God keep you. Oh, the freedom that
belongs to the children of God! Theirs is a sweet land of
liberty. But alas! how many will go on bearing their own
burdens and weighted down with care with these words right
before them: "He careth for you!" Why not let
Him?
Care is a grace-destroyer. If you
would be strong in the grace of God, you must live free
from care. It gnaws at the very vitals of the soul. A
strong cable made of many fine wires was stretched across
the river and was used to tow a heavy scow back and forth.
One of the small strands was broken. This was thought to
be a small matter. Soon another was broken and then
another. Still this was not of much consequence. One by
one more were broken but unheeded because each was so
small. Finally all were broken, and the boat went adrift.
A little care does not seem to be of much consequence. But
the Bible says to be "careful for nothing," and
to "cast all your care upon him."
Some have thought that the bearing
of burdens and cares make us strong in the Lord. No, it is
the casting of them on Jesus that makes us strong. For a
man to be down under a heavy weight is no exercise to his
muscles; but to be up on his feet and passing heavy
weights on to another, this is exercise. To be down under
burdens and cares is no exercise to the soul, but is
really death; the passing of the cares on to Jesus is the
exercise and the strength of the spiritual powers. If you
only knew how much grace a little care destroyed, you
would quickly cast them on Jesus. Some have come to find
themselves entirely without grace because they did not
cast their cares on the Lord. We knew a sister whose baby
was such a care that she could not keep saved. One day
when asked how she was getting along in the Lord, she
answered, "Not well: the baby is such a care and
worry that I can not keep the victory I should like to
have." Was it not too bad to lay such a blame upon a
poor, little, innocent child? I was asked one time if it
was possible to reach an experience where we would never
fret or worry. Certainly we can. We shall never get to a
place where we shall have no temptations, but we can get
to a place where we shall not yield to the temptations.
Your life has not reached that degree of perfection that
it should, until you have attained to such an experience.
Jesus says, "Take no thought for the morrow."
When you are having any great anxieties about future
things, you are doing what Jesus tells you not to do, and
you can not do something He tells you not to do without
suffering spiritual loss. Oh! why will you worry about
anything, when Jesus says, "Be anxious for
nothing." "But," you say, "when there
is no meat in the larder and no flour in the bin, can we
then be not anxious? There are those who have been in just
such circumstances and yet have not been greatly troubled.
If you will be over-anxious about
anything, you can never live close to God. When anxieties
knock at the door of your heart for admittance, and you
open the door and let them in, you are opening the door to
a dangerous band of robbers. They are robbers of grace and
peace. When anxieties step over the threshold of your
heart's door, grace and peace fly out of the window.
"But what am I to do?" sighs a care-worn soul.
Do just what a good man says he did. He said that he
opened his heart to Jesus, and He came and shut the door.
Let Jesus keep the door of your heart. When anxieties come
and want into your heart, tell them they must get
permission from Jesus, because you have given your whole
heart up to Him. This is what is meant by "casting
your care upon him." It is not enough to kneel down
and ask Jesus to take them; you must cast them upon Him.
In this is the soul's needed exercise. The soul that will
do this shall be strong. You must put the burden over on
the Lord's shoulders and let Him bear it. He will bear all
your burdens for you if you will lay them upon Him.
Not only must you put them upon
Him, but you must let go entirely. You do not even need to
look after them to see what He does with them. Your little
child comes to you with a tangled cord. It gives it over
into your hands, but holds to one end. Now, you know that
in order to get the tangle out, you must have both ends. O
weary one, Jesus will disentangle all the cares of life,
but you must let Him have both ends. He does not want your
help. You hinder Him if you attempt to help Him. Cares
will come; things that are of a trying nature will assail
us as long as we live; but we have a refuge in Jesus; he
will bear our burdens; he will care for us.
