10.18.2014

On Casting Cares and Nurturing Seeds of Peace

Philippians 4:6-7
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

This is one of those commands that we make seem way too easy to follow, sometimes.  Do you really understand how challenging it is to love your enemies?  Or to be anxious for nothing?  We need to cast our cares on the Lord, which means you need to let go of it, to throw it to Him.  We have a strong urge to hang on to it.  We may pray, talk with a friend, go to church, listen close, scrunch up face during Communion, the whole nine yards.  But we haven’t yet laid down the burden in our hearts before Him.  We held it up to show Him, then clutched it close to our breast again.

Do you believe that God is really GOD?  Is your life in His hands, or in yours?  Is He good?  Or do you need a back up plan that causes you to clutch that anxiety back to your heart?  Lay it down and give it to Him.


The Table is a place where anxieties subside for a time.  While you eat, you know you’re getting something you need.  God is sowing seeds of peace in your heart, here.  Gently prying your fingers from that worry, asking you to hand it over.  He will feed You, clothe You, give you all you need.  Later today or this week, don’t grab the burden back.  It may gravitate back to you, and you may need to hand it over to him again.  Keep trusting Him, with a thousand little prayers, throwing that worry back to the Lord.  God plants peace in you here – with His Word and sacrament.  Don’t pull up the plants later.  Isaiah 26: “You will keep him in perfect peace,Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.”

This is reworked from Exhortations, Douglas Wilson, page 89.

10/19/14

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