The Cares Of Life

Cares are anxieties. Cast your care on God by giving over the control of the situation to God, let him manage the flow of circumstances, give him the right to manage your feelings and let it go by faith.


Scripture: 1 Peter 5:7, Mark 4:38

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? Doin’ all right? Well, this is your good friend, Bob Cook. And I’m back with you once again to share from the Word of God. We’re in 1 Peter 5, and we’ve come to that precious 7th verse, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” Care in the King James versions is used in the sense of anxiety, especially the worrying, painful sense of anxiety. This is a common meaning of the word in the Bible. And although other versions have changed it, that’s what it means.

And so, our Lord Jesus spoke about when the good seed is sown, the good seed of the Word of God is sown in people’s hearts, the cares of this world choke the Word and becomes unfruitful. You can worry to the place where it, it affects your spiritual life and, and, and makes it unfruitful. Worry is unbelief in action. And so our Lord Jesus spoke about the cares of this world choking God’s Word. Then there was this, there was this question that the disciples raised using the same word, “Carest Thou not that we perish? Carest Thou not that we perish?” Aren’t you, don’t you care about us? They asked that question as recorded in Mark 4:38. Now here you have by contrast 1 Peter 5:7: “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” You are His concern.

You remember the question that was asked in the old hymn? My father used to sing it oftentimes. He was want to pick out a songbook after the evening meal. I was chief cook and bottle washer for him for some years while I was in my, in my junior high, and high school years; my sister had gone off to school and work, and was living then a good many hundreds of miles away from us. And it was just he and I in a, what they called then a light housekeeping room. Today you call it an efficiency I guess.

But there was a sink on one side of the room, a stove immediately opposite it where we could cook the food. And alongside of that cook stove was a little gas heater with the whiskery asbestos on the back of it, that would glow when you lit the gas. You remember them? (Laughs) Asbestos of course now is, is out. Nobody uses it, but we didn’t know that it was dangerous in those days. We just were glad for the warmth. And then on the other side of the, of this large room, there was a bed flanked by a rather spacious clothes closet. And then on the forth side of the room there was a table and chairs, and a China cabinet in the corner. And that was ‘Home, Sweet Home’ for me for some years.

And so when it was time for him to come home from work — he worked over a place called the Toledo Machine and Tool Company over Dorr Avenue, in Toledo. He was in charge of the, the blueprint vault; he had to file all the blueprints away and, and pull them out when a repair order came in. And so when he came home from work, I’d have supper ready, such as it was. I don’t know how that dear man ever lived through those days, because it was mostly canned food and pasta, with the occasional hamburger or whatever, you know. I learnt to fry a pork chop fairly well, cook spaghetti and, and boil potatoes, and what not.

And then we’d have supper — he called it supper, it was never dinner. The evening meal was supper; it was breakfast, dinner and supper at our house like the farmer’s folk across the country still have it. And then he’ll get out this song book. I would be doing the dishes — that was my job. He never, he never offered to do those dishes. (Laughs) That was, that was my job. “Time to clean up the table boy!” So I got to work at it. And he would poke out, pick out a song book. And, or like as not he’d turned to a song entitled ‘Does Jesus Care’.

“Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply for mirth and song; As the burdens press, and the cares distress, and the way grows weary and long; Does Jesus care when my way is dark, with a nameless dread and fear; As the daylight fades into deep night shades, does He care enough to be near; Does Jesus care when I’ve tried and failed, to resist some temptation strong; When for my deep grief I find no relief, though my tears flow all the night long.” Then he’d come to this last verse, and the memories would come flooding back because he never ceased to carry the torch for his sweetheart, Daisy whom he lost in death when I was sixteen months old or so. And he’d sing, “Does Jesus care when I’ve said ‘goodbye’ to the dearest on Earth to me; And my sad heartaches till it nearly breaks, is it ought to Him, does He see.”

And I’d see him wipe away a tear sometimes when he came to that. And then he’ be singing the chorus, “Oh yes, He cares, I know He cares; His heart is touched with my grief; When the days are weary, the long nights dreary; I know my Savior cares.” And likely as not he’ll look up after he finished that song, and smile at me and say, “Halleluiah my boy, I’m going to see your mother one of these days, and we’ll walk down the golden streets together, in the glory land, Hallelujah.” (Laughs) That’s, that’s the kind of a man he was. Well you see, when I come to a, a verse like 1 Peter 5:7, all these things come flooding back. The questions that the disciples asked when they were in a boat that was threatening to sink, “Does’t Thou not care? Carest Thou not that we perish?” And Martha, when she was, when she was burdened, just overburdened with all the things she had to do in preparing a meal for our Lord Jesus; then she said, “Carest thou not that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.”

Well, He cares, He cares. And your privilege and mine by the way, is to care for other people. Our Lord Jesus told the story of what’s known as the ‘Good Samaritan’. And it says that when this Samaritan traveling man — this is the first traveling salesman story in the Bible (Laughs) — when this traveling salesman came along, it said he saw the poor fellow lying there on the road wounded and half dead.

And he had compassion on him, went to him; bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine; and put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn; and took care of him — same, same expression — ‘took care of him’. And on the morrow, he took out 3 pence and gave to the innkeeper and said, “Take care of him. And if thou spendest ought more, when I come again I will repay thee.” Take care. You and I have the privilege of exhibiting this same blessed compassion as our Lord shows to us.

Well, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” How do you…? Let me ask this question: How do you cast your care upon the Lord? How do you do it? Well you say, “Pray.” Yes, of course pray. However, I’ve found oftentimes that simply praying to God about a thing leaves me with the same kind of concern I had when I went to my knees. It’s possible to, to talk to God about your troubles, and then go away still carrying them, isn’t it? Oh yes. So how do you cast your care on Him?

Well number one, you come to him realizing that, that he’s, he has to take control. You give, you give the control of the situation to God. That doesn’t mean that you’ll be inactive — you’re not going to be turned into some kind of a spiritual amoeba, just lying there like a spiritual blob on the landscape. Not that, God doesn’t take away your personhood when you give yourself to Him. Nor does he absolve you of human responsibilities when you give yourself to Him. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to cease to be efficient, and effectual, or hardworking, or whatever. It does mean that you give God the right to manage you.

Now some of you have been through an experience such as I’m going to tell you about — I’ve been in it. Anything I tell you, I know it, I’ve been there. Here’s a, here’s a situation where everything seems to be going wrong, and nobody quite knows what to do. And someone comes in who knows the, the score, knows the business, and knows what to do; and immediately begins to say, “Let’s do this, and let’s do that, and let’s change the other.” And by and by, after a few days or weeks have gone by, you look at each other and you say, “My things are different.” Now why? Is it because, you stopped working? Oh no, it’s because somebody came in that knew how to manage it. Right?

Well now, the same thing is true in your own life. ‘Casting all your care upon Him’ means, give God the right to manage your care — I mean, your feelings. See, care is our anxiety. Give Him the right to manage your feelings. My talking to you won’t make you feel any different — I know that, and so do you. Lecturing a person never makes him feel any different except maybe a little more angry or upset. We don’t change each other’s feelings by talk. (Laughs) Too bad isn’t it? But that’s how it is.

No, you, you, you give God the right to manage your feelings. Can God defuse anger? Oh yes, I’ve seen him do it in my own life, and in the lives of others. Can God take away the, the pull of some strong temptation? Oh yes, He can and He does. Can God take away the sense of devastating guilt and despair? Oh yes. Feelings. Can God ease the pain of sadness and sorrow, when you’ve been bereaved of some loved one? Oh yes thank God! He can, and He does.

To cast your care upon the Lord means, ‘give Him the right to manage your feelings. Then give Him the right to determine the circumstances as they flow.’ The flow of circumstances. It doesn’t relieve you of doing your duty, mind you, now. It does give God the, the opportunity to work on your behalf. “It is God that worketh in you,” Paul says, “both to will and to do, of His good pleasure.” Paul said, “I labor according to His Spirit which worketh in me mightily.” God’s ministry, through Paul, was implemented by the Holy Spirit in him.

And so, you let God control the flow of circumstances; you don’t try to manipulate them. “I’ll do this, and He’ll do that, and we’ll have the other result.” No, you, you’re faithful on the job; but you let God control the flow of circumstances. You’ll be amazed at how things work when you do that. And then there is the, the, the actual letting go; casting all your… When you cast something, you let go of it. You can’t cast something from you, and still hold on to it. Some of you may have held on to the bowling ball, when you were about to send it flying down the alley to hit those ten pins. You forgot to let go of it, and you went with it. (Laughs) You have to let go. Letting go by faith is a secret of casting your care upon Him. We’ll talk about that the next time we get together.

Dear heavenly Father today, help us to cast our cares on Thee, to let go of them by faith so that You could manage us. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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