Daily Affirmations - Day 1 - All Your Cares: The Secret of Peace
This week's Theme: All Your Cares
Day 1: The Secret of Peace
Casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him (God), for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully] (1 Peter 5:7 AMPLIFIED VERSION)
What did the Master teach? “I say unto you, be not anxious for your life…. Be not… anxious for the morrow”(Luke 12:22). He left no exceptions.
What did Paul teach? “In nothing be anxious.” (Philippians 4: 6). He said not a word about exceptions to the rule, but left it unqualified and absolute...
But if we are never to worry, what shall we do with the things that incline us to anxiety? There are many such things in the life even of the most warmly sheltered.
There are disappointments that leave the hands empty after days and years of hope and toil; there are resistless thwartings of fondly-cherished plans and purposes; there are bereavements that seem to sweep away every earthly joy; there are perplexities through which no human wisdom can lead the feet; there are experiences in every life whose natural effect is to perturb the spirit and produce deep and painful anxiety.
If we are never to worry, what are we to do with these things that naturally tend to cause us worry?
This is easily answered—though not always easily done. We are to put all these disturbing and distracting things into the hands of God. If we carry them ourselves, of course we cannot help worrying over them.
But we are not to carry them; we cannot if we would. Up to the measure of our wisdom and our ability we are to forecast our lives and shape our circumstances.
What people sometimes call trust is only laziness; we must meet life heroically. But when we have done our whole simple duty, there both our duty and our responsibility end.
And where is that line? Where does our responsibility end and trust begin? But that is the wrong question, for our responsibility is to trust all the time. We can hardly keep from worry if we try to divide our lives between the two. Instead, we trust the Father to give us a sound mind that can learn to do just the part He expects us to carry out. And we trust Him to teach us when and where to let go and rest in His keeping.
We cannot hold back the wave that the sea flings upon the beach; we cannot control the wind and the rain; we cannot keep away the frosts that threaten to destroy our summer fruits; we cannot shut out the sickness that brings pain and suffering, or the sorrow that leaves its poignant anguish; we cannot prevent the misfortune that comes through the carelessness or malice of others.
In the presence of all this class of ills we are utterly powerless; no wisdom or strength of our own can control them. Why, then, should we endeavor to carry them, only to be vexed in vain?
We are God’s children, living in our Father’s world, and we have [nothing] to do with managing the world... We have only to stay in our place and attend to our own little personal duties, giving ourselves no shadow of anxiety about anything else.
That is what we are to do instead of worrying when we meet things that would naturally perplex us. We are just to lay them in God’s hands—where they belong—that He may look after them while we abide in quiet peace and go on with our little daily duties.
We have high scriptural authority for this. This is what Paul teaches in his immortal prison-letter, when he says, “Be careful [or anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7 - KJV).
The points here shine out very clearly. We are to be anxious in nothing, in no possible circumstances—we are never to worry. Instead of being anxious, we are to take everything to God in prayer. The result will be peace: “The peace of God… shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Peter’s counsel is similar, though more condensed: “Casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7 - KJV). God is taking care of you, not overlooking the smallest thing, and you have but to cast all your anxiety upon Him and then be at peace.
Worry comes from trying to carry our own cares; our duty is to cast them all upon Christ, giving ourselves thought only about our duty. This is the secret of peace.
~ James R. Miller, Shall We Worry?
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