The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Caring and Casting"
Knowing that people care means much. Be it a family member, friend, neighbor, colleague, or merely a compassionate observer, the concern of others helps us to face and address the burdens of life.
"Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you" (I Peter 5:7).
Knowing that God cares takes the matter to a different realm of encouragement altogether. The One who made, sustains, and redeemed us emotionally involves Himself in our well being. He does not view our lives from a dispassionate vantage point of a witness, but rather from the empathetic and sympathetic presence of a loving participant. As the writer of Hebrews reveals, "feeling" accompanies God's sensibilities toward us.
"We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15).
The Psalmist echos and enhances such blessed truth:
"The LORD is gracious and full of compassion" (Psalmist 11:4).
By definition, compassion involves the cares and troubles of one being shared by another. Our Lord is "full" of such unselfish devotion to the pains of others. He became man to redeem us from sin and its heart ravaging effects by the the caring that became bearing: "Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4). Indeed, when Scripture declares the Lord Jesus Christ to be "a man of sorrows," we must remember the title speaks not to the bearing His own sorrows, but rather those of others (Isaiah 53:3).
We must view our Lord in this way, first because Scripture so plainly declares His compassion. Moreoever, we will cast our cares upon Him in direct proportion to how well we know the reality and genuineness of His concern. The Scriptures, the Holy Spirit, and fellow believers direct our hearts to the heart of our Heavenly Father in times of sorrow. "The God of all comfort" can do something about our cares (II Corinthians 1:3). Even more, He wants to do something about them. The Prince of peace desires our hearts to know His peace in all things. Two things make this possible: His caring and our casting. Of the former we can be sure, the knowledge of which makes the latter far more likely to be performed. May our Lord increasingly convince our hearts of the reality of His full heart of compassion. Comfort awaits, and peace where it seems like it should not be…
"Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
(Philippians 4:6-7)
Weekly Memory Verse
Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
(John 4:14).
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