Casting Your Care on the Lord
"Casting Your Care on the Lord"
Proverbs 16:3 (AMP)
Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.
Read Word Weatlh @ Prov. 16:3, Spirit-Filled Life Bible for "commit"
We’ve all been through those times when things are pressing on our mind, and we have a hard time not worrying about them. Worry is based in fear, so if we allow our thoughts to dwell on the "what if’s," we quickly become bogged down in a negative thought process. Our thoughts are spiraling in a circle that is taking us quickly down. What can we do when we come to a situation like that?
First of all, we should stop and pray as soon as we realize we’re doing that. Ask the Lord to forgive you for worrying instead of trusting Him. You WANT to trust Him, but sometimes the worry in your mind almost seems to have a life of its own. There are sometimes situations that the only thing that works is the Word!!! You have to actively use the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, to defeat the enemy. As a friend of mine said, "The Word works when you work the Word!" This is also called "praying the Word." It is a VERY effective weapon against the enemy – the Sword of the Spirit.
Let’s break this verse down into parts:
Roll your works (care) upon the Lord by trusting Him.
We see from the WW given above that we must commit our works or our cares to the Lord. Just as the camel has to kneel down and roll his burden off, so we have to kneel down in prayer and roll our burden off onto the Lord. Use this verse as a model prayer to help you roll your works on the Lord.
"Lord, I roll my works concerning ___________ onto you. I trust and commit ________ wholly to you. As I trust in You, You will cause my thoughts to become agreeable to your Will concerning ________. As my thoughts become agreeable to Your will concerning ___________, so shall my plans be established."
It is the normal inclination of the human mind to worry. Therefore, we have to TEACH our minds to follow after what God desires us to follow after. We have to train ourselves to follow righteousness. This requires some discipline on our part. Just as our mind is telling our tastebuds that we want a piece of that chocolate cake in the kitchen, we have to put our spirit man in charge and remind our waistline that we don’t NEED that cake. So it is with worry…our normal human mind will keep going back to that thing over and over again. We have to retrain ourselves by the Word, not to do that.
Let’s look at the following verses:
Psalm 55:22 (WW for "sustain")
Psalm 28:7
I Peter 5:7 (WW for care)
(read portion from TD Jakes Bible)
When you trust Him with your care, you are lining up with the Word. Because you are trusting Him with your care, He is able to cause your thoughts to come into alignment with His Will.
Isaiah 26:3 (AMP)
John 14:27 (WW for trouble)
Read footnote in SFLB for Isaiah 26:3.
Isaiah 26:3 says that He will keep us in perfect peace if our mind is stayed on Him. If we keep our mind on Him, then we can walk in peace. Does that mean that we will never think about anything but God? No…we have to live in this world. We have to deal with the things of this world, and sometimes that means we have to walk through things that stir up strong emotion. Does that mean that we never will think about those things or never feel that emotion? Of course not. We have to deal with the situations that come up in our lives. We have to deal with the emotions these things stir up. We can’t be so heavenly minded we are no earthly good. But if we want to walk in peace, we have to stay focused on Him so that we can stay in peace. When that thing you are facing starts stealing your peace, you know it is time to cast your care on Him so that you can walk in His peace.
John 14:27 – it is a choice whether or not we allow our hearts to become troubled or agitated. Think of how a washer has an agitator in it so that the clothes are turned and moved around while they are washing. That is what the enemy wants to do to our hearts – agitate them, trouble them about things so that we become ineffective in fulfilling God’s destiny for us.
When your thoughts become agreeable to His will, then will your plans be established (steady, stable, firm, faithful, not wishy-washy,) and your plans will succeed.
I Peter 5:10 (AMP)
Psalm 37:5
John 15:7
I John 5:14,15
When our plans are established and based on God’s will for us, then they will succeed…it is only a matter of time.
Let’s look at this process in another way now.
When you are faced with a problem, you have a choice. You can believe that God is Who He says He is and He desires to help you and to bless you, or you can worry about what’s going to happen. There is a process you can follow which will help you to keep your mind pointed in the right direction.
Refocus your mind. Colossians 3, 2 (AMP)
The enemy loves to play with your mind if you will let him. If your mind is leading you in the wrong direction, begin speaking the Word to remind yourself of what you are supposed to be doing.
This week in prayer, the Lord showed me something that I was dealing with that was distracting my mind from where God wanted it. As I was praying, God showed me I would be trying to focus on Him and on what He wanted me focused on, but that this thing that distracted me was much like focusing to take a picture with a camera. You can get the camera set on something in the background so you can take the picture with the background thing as the focus. But if something starts jumping around in the forefront, it distracts you, it takes your focus away from that thing you really want to focus on. So it is with anything that is in our life that we find ourselves focusing on. If it distracts us from the "prize" – Jesus and fulfilling His call on us – then we must take steps to remove that thing that is distracting us from Him.
I talked with a friend this week about how sometimes things happen in your life that upset you or make you angry. She told me that she tries to redirect that anger or emotion that would normally make you "lose it." She redirects the energy and tension of the moment into something more positive – like her family. Then later when her emotions are calmed down, she can deal with the other thing and put it in its proper place.
Refill your mind. Philippians 4:6-8
If something has been on your mind for a long while, then you need to try to
refill that empty place with God and His Spirit. Find Word that applies to that situation, to fill in that void. Refill your mind with good things, and refocus your mind, and point it in the right direction by speaking the Word.
Renew your mind. Romans 12:2
The best way to renew your mind is to speak the Word of God. The Word of God is the Will of God. Find scripture for your situation, and begin to speak the Word over your life. Work the Word, and the Word will work for you!
To sum things up…we will all face issues in life that are upsetting, that tear at our emotions, that make us want to lose control. We are human, we are emotional creatures, and we must acknowledge where we are in our humanity and process what we are feeling. But it is easy to get "stuck" there, and we cannot afford to do that. Our spirit man is listening to everything that’s going on, and we need to let him be the one in "charge." While we must have and process our emotion, we can’t let it rule us and drive us. We must allow our spirit man to be the one in charge, so that he can properly direct us in the right direction.
If you have two dogs and you feed one meat and the other nothing, which one is going to be the one that wins when they start towards you? The one that you fed the most, the one who is stronger. If you feed your spirit man Word and refuse to get stuck in emotional battles, you will come through victoriously with your head held high.
posted by Carolyn at 8:45 PM
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