ICS Daily Devotions
Cast your Cares on God
Philippians 4:6-7 (AMP) But in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.
The Apostle Paul encouraged us to pray in every circumstance regarding anything that brings anxiety or worry in our lives. We are to make our problems known to God by calling and crying out to Him.
The moment we are saved, we need to know that we have hope in God. It is terrible to live in fear and hopelessness. There is a tendency for us to think of the worst scenario whenever something happens to us. Anxiety is built on fear, fear of the unknown or the possible scenarios. Fear is a spiritual force that can cripple us and prevent us from doing anything. It keeps us busy thinking about the possible outcome but it does not help us to resolve the problem. It is a tactic of the evil one that makes us focus on the issue rather than on God.
The good news for us as believers is we are able to offload it to God and rest in His love. God is someone bigger, greater, more powerful, have much more resources, ideas, and nothing is too difficult for Him. He is limitless. This is the reason why God established a covenant with us, so that man’s problem will also be His problem according to the covenant obligation between partners.
1 Peter 5:7 (AMP) 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.
God has time and again reminded us to pray and cast all our cares upon Him. Prayer and casting our cares on Him is something that we need to choose to do. We are to come before Him to tell Him specifically the situation that we are in and ask Him for help. Why should we share our worries with the Lord if He is omniscient? Speaking to Him about the situation helps us act as a release valve for our emotions, deal with our fears and receive from the Lord while we are in His presence.
Isn’t it comforting to know that God cares affectionately for you? You matter a lot to Him. His care for you is not determined by what you have done or not done because it is purely the grace of God. We are able to run to the throne of grace during the “perfect storm” in our lives. We need to always remember that we have the right, the opportunity to come to Him and draw upon Him in time of need. In fact, He has invited us to do so when He said the we should come to the throne of grace to find help and mercy in time of need. We have a need when we are worried, stressed out and lost our peace. We can have an audience with the Creator of heaven and earth. It is before the throne of God where we pour out and cast all our cares, anxieties, concern and worries onto the Lord.
We need not pray long prayers but short sincere utterances of how we feel and what we experience. It is an honest conversation with God and a time of fellowship with Him. It will also give Him a chance to assure us and bring Scripture into our memory as a form of comfort and strength.
1 John 5:14-15 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
We are confident that He accepts us and listen to our prayers. He is our deliverer. He is the God who hears!
Sermon Series: God’s Peace
