Saturday, 5 May 2012

Casting your Care


Have you ever experienced the "4am worry syndrome"? Most of us have at some time woken up in the early hours and every problem or care in our lives becomes magnified many times. Problems and impossibilities go round in our minds.  What we perceive to be shortcomings and failures in our personal lives will also trouble us in these hours.  I always feel there is a fine line between worry and prayer! If you are trying to sort out the whole world at 3 or 4 am, it would be much more restful to let God sort it out!  Sometimes He wants to use you in this quiet hour to pray into a particular situation. If it concerns relationships, or your children, the health of a loved one, your work, your financial situation, then bring it to God. He is your Father. Roll your burdens on Him and He will carry you through. One practical help is to get out of bed, make a hot drink, and read your Bible for a bit.  Try a Psalm and start thanking the Lord for the promises you find. God can totally change our perspective and bring us peace again and sleep!

1 Peter 5:7 (Amp)
“Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on HIM, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.”

I have been thinking about a verse which is amazing in that it is translated with 2 differing meanings. Have a look at this:  

Ps 68:19 (NASV)
“Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden,
The God who is our salvation!  Selah.
God is to us a God of deliverances ...”


The Amplified version puts it like this:
19”Blessed be the Lord, Who bears our burdens and carries us day by day, even the God Who is our salvation! Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! God is to us a God of deliverances and salvation …" 


In both the above verses, it is talking about God bearing our burdens, and even carrying us! The wonderful thing is that it is daily. Every single day the Lord is caring and carrying! His mercies are new every morning (even at 4am!). (Lam 3:22)


Maybe you know of the poem, "Footsteps"? The author tells of looking back over his life and seeing 2 sets of footprints through the sand - the Lord's and his own alongside one another. However, at the most difficult and troubled times, there is only one set of footsteps.  He asks the Lord, "Why did you leave me Lord, when things got tough?" And the Lord replies, "I never left you. Where you see only one set of footprints, it is there that I was carrying you!" 


Now look at the New King James version of the same verse, Psalm 68:19,


“Blessed be the Lord,Who daily loads us with benefits,
The God of our salvation!   Selah
Our God is the God of salvation….”


Wow, here He is loading us! What does He load us with? His benefits, His goodness, His blessings! So He takes all our burdens, worries, failures, impossibilities etc and He exchanges it for HIS load! His load of blessing - joy, health, provision, guidance, peace, power to live and to love and to overcome in our daily living. I believe that the Lord intended for the Hebrew original text to be slightly ambiguous in its meaning about whether it is HIS load or ours! God is telling us that He is always waiting to exchange loads with us! Our burdens for HIS blessing! He loves us, cares for us and sets us free!


Psalm 37:5 (Amp)
 5Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass.

Start rolling your load over onto Jesus right now. When you can take some time, just share your problems or heartaches with Him. He longs to exchange all that weighs you down, to give you instead His load of blessings and, with it, direction for moving forward with joy and gladness, knowing His amazing love for you.

PS: Please see my notes on the sidebar about the different versions of the Bible that I use and the link to BibleGateway.
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous7 May 2012 at 07:49

    This is great, keep blogging! I like the idea of being daily loaded with benefits - rather than being lumbered with worries. I would also add the passage from Matthew. This is the first study that Jo shared with me at uni

    Matthew 6:25-34

    New International Version (NIV)
    Do Not Worry

    25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

    28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

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  2. Caro Q7 May 2012 at 11:02

    Thanks so much for sharing this passage from Matthew. And for reading my blog - keep coming! It is wonderful that Jesus Himself tells us about the futility of worry and anxiety, and that our heavenly Father cares for us. The key is to seek Him and His kingdom in our lives first! Great that you remember that first study at uni with Jo. I don't know who you are, but I am sure she does!

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