Devotionals

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"Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." (1 Peter 5:7 KJV)

All your cares? Similarly, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28 KJV) All of us that labour? One of the very difficult maturing points in Christianity is learning what to ask of God. So many times we see the situation that others around us are in and recognize how grim their lot seems to be. Naturally, we have an occasion to be thankful for what we do have and thus have a "let us be content" moment. Definitely a good reflection. Other times we think of how much we could be doing without hanging around waiting on a clearer direction and get to work until that clearer direction comes. Again, probably another good practice.

So, do we let these attitudes shape what it is that we are asking from God? Do we process through what we already have and how much we have compared to our neighbor before we bring our petitions to His throne? If we do, then we are not bringing "all our cares" and "all our labours" to Him. We are only bringing those cares and labours to Him that we think that we cannot handle. How many cares and labours finally got resolved once we figured out that they were way outside our capabilities? In fact, we may not even need to be asking for difficult times to keep us on our knees, because it may be these things that we are sure about that are actually missing from our requests of and thanks to God.

This is difficult to process, because at the moment we think we already have so much. We think we have not done enough to exhaust our own resources yet. We think there are still other possibilities. Resorting to sheer hope and prayer is something that may come down the road, but ought not be a first step. Or should that be our very first step? (Hint: see Matthew 6:33) Perhaps it is the previous verse (1 Peter 5:6) that has been forgotten. Perhaps it is the "humble yourselves" part that allows us to most effectively cast every possible care that we have upon Him straight away. What request is too large for God? What request is too great for Him to work a very new creature out of you? Humbling is not necessarily shedding weight from your requests, but it may be learning to include more in your requests. He is the one who can remake you so that you are really ready to walk through that door once it is opened.

"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:" (1 Peter 5:6 KJV)

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