Many years ago, Linda and I were living in Austria helping start a new church. One Sunday, we invited our local druggist and his wife to visit our church service. We had been sharing the Gospel with them, but they had not surrendered to Christ yet. Our church was small with about 80 people at the time and the service was quite informal.
Because of the small number, we always had a time of sharing in which people would tell about how God was working in their lives. I don’t remember all that was shared on that Sunday, but several people shared personal details in their lives in which they had seen the Lord work.
After the service and over lunch, I asked this couple what they thought of our church service. Then, for the next 10 minutes they groused about our sharing time. Angrily, they said, “Who do those people think they are that Almighty God would care about their puny, pitiful little issues? What arrogance to assume that God cares about the little details of their lives!”
I couldn’t help but think of 1 Peter 5:6-7, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” (NKJV) This passage begins by urging us to humble ourselves before God. This is what our friends thought we should do, and they were right about that, but they were going about it the wrong way.
Notice the wording of verse 7, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” While it isn’t apparent in all translations, in the original language, the word “casting” is a participle. In English, you can recognize participles because they end in “ing.” Why is this important?
It’s important, because in verse 6, Peter urges us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Then he tells us one sure way to do this, by casting all our care upon Him, for He cares for us!
Casting our every care on God humbles us and exalts God, because in that act, we both acknowledge our great need and His loving character and awesome ability to meet our needs.
Our Austrian friends had it backwards. But I fear they aren’t alone. Often, when we’re experiencing dark times, we think poorly of ourselves and poorly of God. Instead of casting our cares on Him, we assume falsely that He wouldn’t care about our puny issues. When we do that, we are not being humble but proud. We also demean God’s character by making Him out to be less caring and less powerful than He is.
Jesus said, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11 NIV)
If you want to humble yourself before God, cast all your cares on Him, because He really does care about you—even the small stuff.
©2019 Rob Fischer