God's divine influence will lift you above all impossible circumstances, no matter what they are, if you refuse to take on the care of your problems, and instead, learn how to appropriate the amazing grace of God.
At an intellectual level, most believers know that God doesn't want them to worry. The typical Christian realizes it is inappropriate to become agitated or distressed in the face of trouble. That's why we often admonish one another to "cast your care on the Lord."
The act of casting one's care upon the Lord carries huge implications. That's why it needs to be more to us than a casually spoken phrase. It must become a deeply held belief that influences our choices and decisions, changes the way we view things and impacts the course of our lives.
Casting Your Care on the Lord
We get the phrase "casting your care" from the King James translation of 1 Peter 5:7, which says, "Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you." "Care" is simply another way of saying "worry" and is synonymous with distraction and anxiety. We don't use "care" in this sense of the word much anymore. When you worry, you are keeping the care of that problem rather than "casting" it upon the Lord.
Defining Worry
I like definitions. Sometimes a good definition can really illuminate a concept. Such is the case with the word "worry." According to Webster's, "worry" means "to torment oneself with disturbing thoughts." When you read that definition, you probably think, What sane, reasonable person would torment himself?
And, yet, that is precisely what we do when we allow ourselves to worry. As you surely know if you've ever found yourself tied up in knots with anxiety, worry is not an insignificant problem. It is a major source of torment and disturbance.
Worry is a sin - plain and simple. The Bible makes that clear. The Word also tells us that worry can thwart God's ability to bring blessing, protection, and increase into our lives. I don't know about you, but I don't want worry to have any part in my life as a child of God. You see, worry is not inevitable. No matter what you are facing, you have a choice. You can torment yourself with worry, or you can take the steps necessary to stop it. I want to teach you how to stop worrying.
The Two Characteristics of Worry
All worry is rooted in one of two places - the past or the future. If you are worried, it is because you are either afraid of something that happened in the past or something that might happen in the future. You are either tormented by a mistake you made yesterday or paralyzed by an outcome you may face tomorrow. Let's take a look, first of all, at the worry that comes from fear of the past.
In Philippians 3:13 we read: "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended perfection; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead."
In other words, the Bible tells you to forget the things that are past so you will have the grace to reach forward into the things that lie ahead. We've all made mistakes. We've all done stupid things. If you think about the mistakes of the past, your thoughts will produce worry, and worry will close off the grace you need to move into God's tomorrow for your life.
God has already put your mistakes under the blood of Jesus and has forgotten about them. He has cleansed you and removed your sins from you as far as the east is from the west. He remembers them no more. He wants you to forget the past. He wants you to "put it out of mind." You have the ability to forget. You simply have to decide that you're not going to think about the past anymore.
On the other hand, worry is sometimes rooted in fear about the future. Perhaps you are facing a lawsuit and don't know what the judge's ruling will be. Maybe you've received a notification from the Internal Revenue Service that you are going to be audited and are worried about the questions the auditor might ask. Life is a myriad of unanswered questions about tomorrow.
The future, with its uncertainties and challenges, holds a huge potential for worry and concern. If you want to get rid of worry about the future, you need to do what the Bible says. The Bible tells us to forget the past, and it tells us to do essentially the same thing about the future.
Becoming Worry Free
It is clear. If we want God's grace to operate in our lives, we must overcome the tendency to worry. To do that, we need to take three important steps. First, we must forget the things of the past and refuse to worry about tomorrow. Second, we must watch our words and refuse to murmur or complain. Third, we must become others-oriented, concerning ourselves with serving other people and giving them the Word.
With God's grace free to fully operate in your life, you'll find yourself enjoying healing, provision, and prosperity in greater measure than you ever dreamed possible. Best of all, you'll be positioned to live out God's grand purpose and destiny for which He created you. And it all starts by simply "casting your care upon the Lord." It's easy to do when you realize how much He truly cares for you.
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