“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”–1 Peter 5:7
How much time a day do you spend worrying? Have you ever stopped to think about how much you worry? Consider these statistics from a recent study on the focus of people’s worries:
40%-things that will never happen
30%-things about the past that can’t be changed
12%-things about criticism by others, mostly untrue
10%-about health, which gets worse with stress
8%-about real problems that will be faced
Most of the time spent worrying is spent on things that will never happen. Have you ever worried about a potential problem at work, a possible catastrophic event, or a supposed circumstance only to have it not come true?
I’m sure we’d all admit that we’re good worriers. We naturally seem to fret over events that could possibly happen and how we would react to them. While planning ahead is beneficial, worrying about a possible event is against God’s command to trust Him.
First Peter shows us a promise that helps in times of worry, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” Our job isn’t to worry about what will happen to us, but to trust that God has everything under control.
God loves us and doesn’t want anything to harm us, yet many of us believe we need to look out for ourselves. As is the mindset in our world, looking out for yourself and preparing for the worst is the only way to assure you’re taken care of. Yet God teaches that because He knows the future, we should trust Him to care for us.
Hudson Taylor, a well-known missionary to China, once said about worry, “Let us give up our work, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all, right into [God’s] hand; and then, when we have given all over to Him, there will be nothing left for us to be troubled about.”
Worry is the act of distrusting God and trusting self. It is a statement to God that you know more than He does, and you can better care for yourself than He can. How foolish a statement! No one could ever care for you like your Heavenly Father. He loves you so much He offered His own Son as a payment for your sins. Even so, He daily watches over you and cares for you.
How much time do you spend worrying about the future? God desires that you would cast your cares on Him and forget about them. Let Him take care of you. The next time you’re tempted to worry about something, ask yourself these questions:
Is God still on His throne in Heaven? (Psalm 93:2)
Does God love me? (Romans 8:35-39)
Will my worrying about this situation help anything? (Matthew 6:25-34) Am I trusting myself more than I am trusting God? (Proverbs 3:5)
Have I surrendered this situation to God? (Psalm 9:10)
Take time now to hand over your worries and cares to God. Trust Him with your immediate future just as you trust Him with your eternal future.–From Daily in the Word
