No Worry Allowed

1 Peter 5: 7-9 – Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.  Be self controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers  throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

I can just see the devil…stalking the world…prowling around and listening to our conversations…watching us and waiting for us to let go of God’s hand long enough to become weak.  He must not have found anyone the day he was handed Job. God knew Job could not be shaken…even if everyone…everything…including his health…were taken away.  Job was faithful to God ...he stood firm. Job’s secret is in the first verse of these passage….he had no anxiety…he had cast his fears on God…and trusted wholly that God had his hand…no matter what.

The devil must have some kind of radar that senses when we are worried…and our anxiety becomes  a magnet that draws the devil to us and gives him a huge battlefield to fight us in.  We have many examples of bible greats that showed us how to overcome the temptation to worry…they show us how to hold tighter onto God’s hand.

Moses did it with a simple rod…a staff fashioned to help him care for the sheep of his father-in-laws large stand of land. God ask him that day he appeared in the burning bush what he held in his hand…then he took what Moses knew…and turned it into a staff to lead people. God used that staff to channel Heaven’s power to his people.  The devil wasn’t able to find a foothold as long as Moses listened closely and stood firm on the directions he was given.  Moses wasn’t worried…he held the rod that God told him to hold….and it gave give more strength than any human alone has ever known.

If we don’t cast our cares on God…if we continue to allow them to grow and multiply they eventually begin to overtake our relationship with God. And the prowling lion…who seeks to destroy us…wins…temporarily….and laughs at how easy it was for him to convince us to let go of God’s hand. We drown in our own worries….and forget the powerful God that would love to hold them for us…just because he cares.  Kind of reminds me of my great mom and dad…when I was really young.  I believed everything they told me.  I trusted them with anything.  My parents were the all powerful..all knowing…could take of any situation…powerhouses that I let do anything for me when it was just too hard on my own.  Until I let the world convince me that they couldn’t magically mend a hurt knee with a kiss…or fix the wagon I wrecked going too fast down a hill. I stopped casted my worry on them…and started carrying it on my own.

God is the all powerful…all knowing…can take care of any situation…remedy for any anxiety we have.  Peter sure makes it easy here…he says just cast them on God..he will worry for us…he will keep the devil from devouring our soul…and the relationship that we have with our great Heavenly father.

Father..I thank you for the love you have given so freely…because you care for me.  Forgive me for having such a hard time turning my worries over to you. Help me to take each care and worry about the life you have asked me to walk and give them straight to you. Give me the power to leave them in your hands and trust that you are melding together a master plan to give me rich blessings beyond my imagination.  Forgive me this morning for ever thinking that I could do one thing about any worry I have ever had. Help me to rely on only you…so the devil can not destroy my relationship with you. Amen.