Give All Your Worries And Cares

Monday, May 13, 2013
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Listen while you read: "Glory To His Name"1 (Lyrics)

1 Peter 5:7 – Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. (NLT)

Almost 60 years ago when I was a young child, my father supported our family by working shifts in an auto parts manufacturing plant. When my dad worked nights or afternoons, he slept during part of the day. I internalized a rule, "Don't bother your father."

Recently, I was startled to discover how I had continued to keep that rule in my relationship with God. My old habit was to keep matters I believed I could take care of by myself from God. (I was missing the fact that He knew about them anyway.) In a discussion of today's verse, a friend defined "all your worries and cares" with "If it matters to you, it matters to God." My friend's definition caused me to rethink, because I finally understood that my self-sufficient attitude brought only futile, frustrated stress.

For things and people that I value, yet feel helpless about, I am learning to turn in trust to Christ, name the concern, intercede, ask for help, and wait with hope.

Peter wrote today's Scripture verse at the conclusion of a letter to Christians who were suffering, in order to encourage them. During the three years when Peter had lived and worked with Jesus, he witnessed firsthand the powerful, intimate, loving care of the Lord. With absolute confidence in God's love, thirty years after Christ's resurrection, he wrote this instruction about "all your worries and cares".

1 Peter 5:7 – 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. (AMP)

Is there a worry or care you could turn in at the throne of grace today? Will you, in trust, give the burden to God Most High, Sovereign of the universe, believing how much you matter to Him?

Prayer: Father in heaven, help us, we pray in the name of Jesus our Lord, to live carefree before You, ever trusting Your all-powerful love. Amen.

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About the author:

Pat Bell <llebpat@gmail.com>
Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada

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1 Comment

  • PresbyCan Feedback says:

    Lovely Pat. Thank you.


    Thanks for another challenge Pat.


    Thanks Pat — for pointing out how we carry things forward into our present life.


    Dear Pat;
    Thank you for the reminder.


    Thanks Pat for the reminder that the best way to “tough it out” through problems is to drop to my knees. Blessings.


    Thank you for today’s devotional. I have been forgetting to give it up to the Lord and spending many nights worrying and trying to figure out a solution to some problems. Today, you reminded me to give it up to the Lord, He is my Father and will always take care of my problems.


    Well said, Pat. Your devotion makes me think of a favourite song – Lord, I need You, O I need You, Every hour I need You, My one defense, my righteousness, O God how I need You. The older i get the more I realize that I can’t live my life without God – every day, every hour, every minute – I need Him!


    Thanks Pat for the reminder that cannot be given often enough. We need to write it on the tables of our hearts. That is why I like the version which reads: “Casting all you cares upon Him…”. The word casting so well described the deliberate nature of the action. Nice little devotional!
    Blessings.


    Sometimes it has occurred to me that the same thing was operating in my own life, not so much with God but with other people. Thanks for making this even more clear to me. Things from the past can create barriers so easily, so subtly, that we need each others input to bring them into focus, and then to be able to deal with them. Blessings on you.


    Pat: thanks. It is a really neat, unusual feeling to read something that a friend has written in a service that draws contributors from all over North America. Hearing from God: It is something that is really central to my life, but most Christians I meet have trouble with it. I have grown reluctant to speak of it since it seems to bother them if they can’t. How do you find the reaction of others? What do you say?
    Keep it up.


    Just what I needed, Pat.
    I have an appointment to see a specialist for an ongoing problem which is not healing well. I pray, “Dear Lord, I pray that something less than the re-doing of the surgery might be done” — but I do not know. God knows it all. I can trust Him.
    Thanks for your reassurance.
    Keep writing.


    Dear Pat: Yes I have found God cares about little things and material things in our lives. Here is an example that happened recently. I had a ride to visit my cousin in Palliative Care. Knowing that her youngest sister restricts visits to 10 minutes, and knowing that she is sensitive and distressed by smells, I prepared carefully and asked God what I should wear. I freshened up her flowers.
    Earlier I had talked with another sister, sharing past and present sibling rifts. We encouraged each other realizing we both felt them. One resolved was an answer to prayer she said.


    Dear Pat,
    I want to thank you for your devotional today as it has come at a time when I most definitely needed to hear this particular message. We have concerns about our daughter, who, after 2 miscarriages is pregnant again. She goes for her second ultra sound and is quite worried so to read your devotional and be reminded of Peter’s comforting words was timely for me.
    It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord puts people in our path at times when we need them the most. So I thank God for you and for the gift he has given you. You have written so many inspiring and encouraging devotionals. And I know you are a faithful prayer warrior.
    So please continue to use this wonderful calling you have to bring hope to us when the evil one is trying to draw us to an attitude of hopelessness. God is good.
    Bless you.


    Thank you for continuing to write devotionals. Your devotionals always hit home for me, please keep writing. Thank you.


    Pat, This is a wonderful devotion. I see myself over and over again that “I can take care of that myself”. Bless you.

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