God Cares For You

Once I was driving home from work on Interstate 8 in San Diego when traffic came to a sudden halt because cut logs had fallen out of the back of a truck and skidded across the road.  It happened right in front of me so I stomped hard on the brakes and narrowly missed one.  Once the cars behind me had also stopped, I put on my hazard lights and jumped out to join other motorists to move the stump blockade.  

My first instinct after I approached the massive cut off was to lift.  It was instantly clear how foolish and impossible the task before me was.  But because the wood was freshly cut and very wet, this immovable object slid neatly to the shoulder across the concrete surface.  Within minutes with the help of others all the logs were moved to the side, traffic was flowing freely again and I was thankful not to have a hernia from my poor attempt at lifting.  One takeaway from the incident for me is there are things I imagine I can lift that are far too heavy.  But dealing with an immovable obstacle a different way (with the help of others) proved fruitful.

Sometimes heavy weights are not obstacles in front of us but figurative ones that weigh upon us.  Our minds can be weighed down with problems we cannot solve and our souls can be cast down.  It is possible the burdens we bear were never for us to carry, but a test allowed by God to show us (when we are consequently overwhelmed) how much we rely upon our own strength.  A person with genuine faith in God can still be prone to try to lift what they cannot and attempt to carry what will crush us.  Our relationship with God is of primary importance, but we are not in this alone:  God has joined us together with other Christians in the Body of Christ and are called to bear one another's burdens as we carry our own load.

In light of the fact God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble 1 Peter 5:6-7 says, "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, ⁷ casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."  When we come to the realisation we are unable and humble ourselves before God in faith, we are also to keep casting all our care upon Him.  In verse 7 the words for care are different:  our care is translated from a word that carries the idea of distraction, whereas the word for God's care is one of concern and interest.  Our cares distract us from seeking or relying upon God, and He is faithful to care for us without distraction.

When we are troubled, worried and afraid, how good it is to view the "cause" of our anxiety to be, on a spiritual level, a mere distraction from Jesus Christ who sits on the throne holding the scepter as KING OF KINGS.  Our Good Shepherd knows the needs of every sheep in His flock, and He is able to lift us from the pit where we are stuck and protect us from howling wild dogs.  If we are robbed of our peace and joy by circumstances of this life, often the reason is we are trying to carry what we cannot; we are trying in vain to lift what is too much for us to budge.  It is wise for us to shift what could distract us from God to be what prompts us to draw nearer to God because He cares for us.