Orange Moon Cafe "Casting and Caring" Part 2

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe...

 

   "Casting and Caring - Part 2"

 

    "Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you" (I Peter 5:7).

   

    A retired baseball pitcher once said that even after many years of stepping away from the mound, "I often still feel the ball in my hand."  Hundreds of thousands of pitches had indelibly imprinted the baseball on the nerves and in the psyche of the pitcher.  He had long ago cast his last pitch.  The ball nevertheless still seemed to be with him.

 

   "We have this treasure in earthen vessels" (II Corinthians 4:7).

 

    Regardless of how long we have known the Lord, or how well we have walked with Him, we still feel the realities of our flesh.  Like the pitcher, we still feel the ball in our hand.  Or more to the point, "The flesh lusteth against the spirit" (Galatians 5:17).  This applies to specific occasions of trusting our Lord.  Casting our cares on the Lord does not always eliminate fleshly feelings, or even contrary thoughts that run through our brains.  Of course, conflicting emotions and notions may indicate unbelief.  But they may not.  Sometimes we cast our cares on the Lord, but still feel them in our hands, as it were.  No less than the Apostle Paul acknowledged the conflict he felt regarding his trusting heart and his fickle humanity.

 

   "We are perplexed, but not in despair" (II Corinthians 4:8).

 

   Paul readily acknowledged the perplexity he felt.  "But" he affirmed of his Christ-empowered heart, the temptation to hopelessness did not overwhelm his confidence: "not in despair."  The Apostle declares that the inward determination of his heart to trust and submit to God was not thwarted by fleshly feelings of perplexity.  The ball may have still seemed to be in his hand, but Paul lived by the spiritual determination, "I will trust in Thee" (Psalm 56:3)  He had cast his care on the Lord, and walked accordingly despite the sensibilities of his flesh.

 

    Born again believers in the Lord Jesus are spiritual beings united with Christ, but who presently live in earthly temples still characterized by susceptibility to unbelief and disobedience.  Faithfulness does not eliminate the internal challenge we experience regarding our Lord and His truth.  It rather overcomes it.  Certainly we look forward to that day when "this corruption shall have put on incorruption" (I Corinthians 15:54).  Forever thereafter, the entirety of our being will flow with the current of righteousness.  Until that day, however, we expect conflict not only with the world, but within ourselves as we seek to walk in the Spirit despite the realities of our flesh.  This sometimes means we still feel the cares we have cast, providing opportunity to affirm and reaffirm the truth we have embraced in our hearts.  "I will trust in Thee."  Herein we stand, and herein we walk step by step regardless of notions and emotions to the contrary.

 

"The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

(Matthew 26:41)

"I delight in the law of God after the inward man.  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law in my mind."

(Romans 7:22-23)

 

Weekly Memory Verse

     "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever."

 (Hebrews 13:8)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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