Tag Archives: cast your cares on Him

February 7, 2023 · 6:00 AM

Good Trade

There’s a scene in “Dances With Wolves” that I always remember. After Lieutenant Dunbar tells the Native American tribe that the buffaloes are moving through and they hunt, Dunbar is invited to their camp for a feast. After dinner, Wind In His Hair wants Dunbar to she a story again, but Dunbar is tired of sharing it. He sees that Wind In His Hair is eyeing his military jacket. He immediately takes it off and offers it to him. Wind In His Hair tries it on and loves it. He then takes off his chest beads and gives them to Dunbar, who puts them on. Wind In His Hair then hits hit chest and reaches across and pats Dunbar’s chest trying to communicate that he wants to trade. Dunbar accepts and says, “Good trade.” It reminds me that even though trades like that aren’t very common anymore, but we still make trades every day.

In Genesis 42, there is a severe famine in Egypt and it’s surrounding areas. Jacob and his sons are deeply affected by it. He hears that there is food in Egypt and sends ten of his eleven sons to get food. He refuses to let Joseph’s younger brother go. When they arrive, Joseph recognizes them, but they don’t recognize him. They ask for food, but he accuses them of being spies and locks them up in jail. He then agrees to let all but one go home until they bring back their other brother. When they tell Jacob.he refuses. He’s now lost two sons and Benjamin is his favorite now. They try to convince him to let them go back, but in verse 38 he says, “My son will not go down with you. His brother Joseph is dead, and he is all I have left. If anything should happen to him on your journey, you would send this grieving, white-haired man to his grave” (NLT). Jacob refused to let go of his son to trade him for food to live. It would take a long time before he let go, thereby delaying the blessing God had for him.

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” God offers many trades with us. We give Him our burdens and He gives us rest. We give Him our sin and guilt and He gives eternal life. We give Him our old life and He gives us a new one. What are you still holding onto that God is offering a trade for? Don’t let fear or pride keep you from making a good trade. He takes our worst and gives us His best in exchange. Release it to Him today. By holding onto it you’re denying yourself the blessings He has for you in exchange.

Photo by Francesca Veronesi on Unsplash

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July 12, 2022 · 5:43 AM

Leaving Stress Behind

Steven Covey taught that many of us aren’t as productive as we could be because of how we spend our time and how we manage the tasks we face. He divided up tasks into four areas. There’s urgent and non urgent, and important and not important. One of the problems many of us face is that we live in the quadrant that is urgent and important. It sounds good on the surface, but the truth is that all we’re doing is putting out fires constantly. We’re doing a lot, but we’re going nowhere. We need to be spending our time focusing on the important, but not urgent quadrant. That one will help us plan for the future and prevent many of the fire drills we face.

In Luke 10, Jesus was visiting the house of Martha and Mary. Martha was in the quadrant of urgent and important. She was busy trying to clean, cook and serve. Mary was in the quadrant of important and not urgent. She sat at Jesus’ feet to listen and learn. Martha got upset at Mary, just like people who live in that quadrant do, and told Jesus to have her help. Jesus replied, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her” (NLT). Jesus understood how tiring it gets living that way being distracted and constantly worrying. Martha wasn’t stressed out or distracted. She was calm because she focused on the right things.

Psalm 37:5 says, “Give God the right to direct your life, and as you trust him along the way, you’ll find he pulled it off perfectly!” (TPT) God knows what is best for you. Cast your cares, your schedule and whatever else is distracting you on Him. Give Him to right to guide your life. He knows what’s best for you mentally, physically and spiritually. Refocus your heart on Him, spend time daily sitting at His feet listening. You’ll find your life will be the way He intended it. Commit all your ways to Him and trust Him in every area of your life. You’ll find peace and rest for your mind, body and soul. He knows what’s best for you and will lead you beside the still waters.

Photo by Olivia Snow on Unsplash

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July 25, 2017 · 5:26 AM

Releasing Burdens


My son thinks he can do anything I can do. I was moving some heavy bags recently, and he wanted to move one. He struggled with it as he pulled and pushed on it. I offered my help, but he refused. “He said, “I got it, Dada. I can do it.” I replied, “I know you can, but I can do it more easily.” He still refused. He wanted to do it. He wore himself out trying to do it. I don’t know if it was my stubbornness or my pride that he got that compelled him to keep doing it alone. Either way, he refused my help.

As I watched him, I couldn’t help but think how often I am that way towards God. I often carry these heavy burdens. They’re not necessarily ones that God gave me. They’re just ones that I’ve picked up and have tried to carry. I’ve tried pulling them and pushing them, all the while wearing myself out. God whispers, “Let me take that,” but I refuse. “I can do it, God,” i say. I can imagine him shaking His head like I do.

It could be my stubbornness or my pride that keeps me from handing my burdens over to the Lord, but either way it’s wrong. When I refuse to give my burdens to the Lord, I’m telling Him that I don’t need Him. I’m telling Him that I can do anything He can do, and that’s a problem. We can’t do what God can do, but we’ve been trying to since Adam and Eve. We’ve got to let go of the things that weigh us down, wear us down and hold us back.

Psalm 55:22 says, “Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you” (NLT). One version says to release them. We have to be the ones who let go. God isn’t going to take them from us forcefully. He has already made the offer for us to cast them on Him. It’s now up to us to let go and to trust Him. Let God do what He does and quit trying to do His work for Him. Trust me, your life will be a lot better.

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March 7, 2017 · 5:55 AM

Basket Of Burdens


When I go grocery shopping, it’s usually for just a few things so I like to use the hand held baskets. My six year old son likes to accompany me on these trips. He always asks, “Can I carry the basket?” The basket is fine for him to carry until I begin to put things in it. Every item we pick up weighs the basket more. When I see him struggling with the weight of it, I ask for it. He often refuses. He struggles to carry it, but still he insists. Sometimes he ends up pushing it along the floor because he doesn’t want to give it up.

Even though life would be easier for both of us if he let me carry it, he keeps going until he’s wore out. I wonder if that’s how it is between us and God when we carry around burdens. God is asking us to release them to Him, but we keep insisting we can do it. We struggle with the weight of it, but still we push on. God asks us to hand it to Him, but we’d rather struggle pushing it than to hand it off. Life would be easier for both of us if we’d just give it up.

In Psalm 55:22, David wrote, “Cast your burden on the Lord [releasing the weight of it] and He will sustain you” (AMPC). Every burden, that’s not from God, that we pick up weighs us down. We know from Matthew 11:30 that the Lord’s burden is light. The burdens He places on our hearts won’t be too heavy for us. He’s even willing to make an exchange with us. He’ll give us His burdens if we will give ours to Him, but that takes us releasing them.

I like the second part of that verse. The word “sustain” means to hold up much like a gable holds up a roof. When we give up our burdens to Him, He holds us up so we don’t cave in. The things we think are keeping us going are the things that are weighing us down. It’s time we heard the Father’s voice and obeyed. Were not strong enough to carry the basket of burdens. Release it to Him and walk in the freedom He offers. He has His hand out waiting for you to hand it to Him.

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March 13, 2014 · 7:38 AM

Out Of Control

I have a confession to make. I’m a bit of a control freak. I love being in control of what’s happening in my life, where I’m going and how things are going to happen. I like to think through every possible scenario before any situation so that I’m prepared for whatever happens. I don’t like it when other people are in control of my situation. There are too many variables. I don’t like it when I don’t know what’s coming next or how to prepare. It can be overwhelming when I’m not in control of my destiny or immediate future.

Brian Tracy, a sales minded motivational speaker, teaches that we feel good about ourselves to the degree to which we are in control of our lives. When we have everything under control, we feel great. When our lives are spinning out of control, we feel horrible. Each one of us have something different that we associate with control. For some, it’s money. When we have it, we feel freedom and in control. When we don’t, we feel helpless and out of control. We tie our self worth to control.

That’s not how God wants us to love though. I’d like to change it up a bit. I think as Christians we feel good about ourselves to the degree to which we allow God to have control in our lives. Each of us choose how much we trust God and how much control He has in our lives. Some of us only trust Him with our problems. Our prayers only go up when life comes down on us. Some of us trust Him with our money. We can’t take it with us so we might as well invest as much as we can in His kingdom so He can multiply it. Some of us trust Him with our whole lives. We look at everything that happens as an opportunity to grow.

When we trust in money, relationships, our parenting skills, our possessions or anything other than God, we are putting ourselves on an emotional roller coaster. We are putting our happiness in things that we can’t control. When we have money, others pay attention to us, the kids are behaving or we have lots of things, we feel great. But when our bank account is empty, others take us for granted, the kids won’t listen and we don’t have much, life gets pretty overwhelming. We feel about an inch tall and our lives seem out of control.

Don’t put your hope, happiness and self esteem in the hands of anyone but God. Ultimately, He’s the one who is in control in a chaotic world. He’s got a plan for your life if you’ll just give Him control to enact it. Your self worth shouldn’t be tied to your bank account, how others treat you, how your kids treat you, how productive you feel or what you have. Your self worth comes from God and when He looks at you, He doesn’t see a mess. He sees His child whom He loves. He sees His precious creation whom He designed to need Him and not to do things on their own.

He wants you to know that He’ll take care of whatever is eating at you today if you’ll just give it to Him. Whatever you’re holding onto today, so that you can feel in control, is what’s making you feel the way you do. The more you give control of your life to God, the better you will feel about your self and your situation. I Peter 5:7 says, “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 sees how you’ve allowed other things to control how you feel about yourself and wants you to give control to Him. You’ll feel better about yourself, your situation and your life.

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