by Joyce Meyer
CONTENT IN WHATEVER STATE
…I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am.
PHILIPPIANS 4:11
Paul had the ability to be content in whatever state he found himself. He knew how to cast his cares upon the Lord and remain in the secret place under the shadow of His wings. In spite of all the challenges he faced and all the hardships he had to go through, Paul knew how to live day by day without being disturbed or disquieted.
If that is not true of you, don’t become discouraged, because Paul said it was something he had learned to do — and that takes time and experience. You may not have that ability yet, but if you keep following the Lord, being faithful and obedient to Him regardless of what may happen to you, sooner or later you will begin to develop the ability to be content in whatever state you may find yourself.
TRUST THE LORD — TOTALLY
Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.
In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.
PROVERBS 3:5,6
As you and I travel down the road of life, we will have many opportunities to veer off the road to one side or the other. Because the devil knows we are making progress toward our goal, he will try to distract us. He will continually tempt us to “take the road of worry” so he can lead us off into destruction.
But if we keep within the lines and obey the signs along the way, we can remain within the boundaries of God’s guidance and protection. Instead of trying to figure out everything for ourselves, we need to trust the Lord to lead us in the way we should go and get us safely to our final destination.
It is not difficult to tell when we have begun to cross over the boundary; it is when we begin to lose our peace. A loss of peace is a sure sign we have moved out from under the protection of the shadow of the Almighty. Usually it is an indication we have started worrying or have sinned and been unrepentant or have mistreated others without acknowledging our wrong and making an effort to set things right between us. Whatever the problem may be, we need to be sensitive to our lack of peace and find the reason for it so we can correct the problem and move back into the way of the Lord.
In this passage from Proverbs we are told to trust in the Lord not just with our heart, but with our heart and our mind. As we have seen, faith is the leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness. When God says to lean on Him, He means totally, completely. He means we are to trust Him mentally and emotionally as well as spiritually.
I used to think I was believing God and trusting the Lord. Spiritually, I may have been doing that. But mentally, I was still planning and scheming, trying to figure out how to handle everything on my own. Emotionally, I was still worrying and fretting, trying to find peace of mind and heart by keeping everything under my control.
Despite my claim to be believing God and trusting the Lord, I was in constant turmoil and confusion — which is always a sign we are getting over the line and headed for trouble.
SEEK GOD, NOT SECURITY
Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?
And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the span of his life?
And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin.
Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?
For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.
But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.
MATTHEW 6:25-33
This is a wonderful passage of Scripture in which Jesus Himself talks to us directly about the futility of worry and anxiety. Every time we are tempted to worry or be anxious about anything in life, we should read these verses out loud.
In verse 25 our Lord commands us specifically to stop being perpetually uneasy, worried, and anxious. That is reason enough in itself for us to quit torturing ourselves with negative thoughts and feelings, because when we do that we are not only harming ourselves, we are also being disobedient to God.
In verse 26 Jesus commands us to look at the birds of the air. Have you ever seen a bird in a tree having a nervous breakdown? Just as God feeds the birds and animals and even clothes the grass and flowers of the field, so He will feed and clothe those of us who put our faith and trust in Him.
In verse 32, Jesus assures us our heavenly Father knows all the things we have need of and that He has promised to provide them for us. So why should we worry?
Finally, in verse 33 Jesus gives us the key to living in the peace of the Lord. We are to seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness, and then all these other things will be given to us as well. In other words, the reason we worry and fret and live in anxiety and fear is simply because we have the wrong priorities. We are seeking security in the things of this world rather than in the Creator of this world.
As the Body of Christ, we are supposed to seek God, not the answer to our problems. If we will seek Him and His righteousness, He has promised to provide all the answers we need.
We spend too much time seeking things and not enough time seeking God. Nowhere in the Word of God are we told to spend all our time seeking the perfect mate or a happy home or a successful career or ministry, though God wants us to have all these good things. Instead, we are told to seek God and His righteousness, trusting Him to provide all these other things He knows we need in accordance with His divine plan and timing.
CAST YOUR CARE
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1 PETER 5:6,7 KJV
In Psalm 27 we saw the psalmist had the right idea when he wrote the one thing he asked of the Lord was that he might dwell in the presence of the Lord and behold His beauty all the days of his life.
In Psalm 91 we saw if we seek to dwell in the secret place of the Most High, leaning and relying on Him in confidence and trust, He will add to us all the blessings He has promised in the rest of that psalm.
In Matthew 6:25-33 we saw we are not to seek after the things of this life, but to seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. In verse 34 of that passage we saw we are not to be worried or anxious about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own; it is enough for us to deal with each day’s cares as they arise.
Now in this passage we are told how we are to deal with each day’s cares — by casting them all on the Lord Who cares for us affectionately and cares about us watchfully.
Several times in Psalm 37 we are told to fret not ourselves and to avoid anxious thoughts, which can quickly become irritating. Instead, we are to place our faith and confidence in the Lord, Who is our Refuge
and our Fortress. (Psalm 91:2.)
GOD AS OUR REFUGE AND FORTRESS
I love You fervently and devotedly, O Lord, my Strength.
The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my God, my keen and firm Strength in Whom I will trust and take refuge, my Shield, and the Horn of my salvation, my High Tower.
I will call upon the Lord, Who is to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.
PSALM 18:1-3
The psalmist says God is everything he needs: his Lord, his keen and firm Strength, his Rock, his Fortress, his Deliverer, his Shield, the Horn of his salvation, and his High Tower. In Psalm 61:2 he calls God …the rock that is higher than I.… In Psalm 62:2 he says of the Lord, He only is my Rock and my Salvation, my Defense and my Fortress, I shall not be greatly moved.
David said God only was his Rock and Fortress. That should be our testimony also. Our Rock of security should not be God plus something else, but God only.
A rock is a type of a sure foundation. When the waters of trial threaten to rise up and overwhelm us, we need to do as David did and climb up on the rock that is higher than we are.
David also called the Lord his Fortress. A fortress is a castle, a fort, a defense, a place into which we go when we are being hunted or attacked. It is not a hiding place, as we have discussed before, in which our enemy cannot find us. It is a place of protection in which we can see and be seen but cannot be reached because we are safe in God’s protection.
David also called the Lord his High Tower — another lofty and inaccessible place — and his Shield and Buckler — which are part of the protective armor that surrounds the believer. (Ephesians 6:10-17.)
In Psalm 125:1, 2 we read: Those who trust in, lean on, and confidently hope in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides and stands fast forever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from this time forth and forever. God is not just above us and around us, He is even underneath us, because the psalmist tells us …the Lord upholds the [consistently] righteous (Psalm 37:17). God is holding us up by His powerful right hand and is surrounding us as the mountains surround the holy city of Jerusalem.
The devil is against us, but God is for us, and over us, and with us, and in us. Because He cares for us, He watches over us and keeps us so we can find rest and peace under the shadow of His wings as we cast all our care upon Him.
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CAST YOUR CARE, NOT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
Therefore humble yourselves [demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation] under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you, 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.
1 PETER 5:6,7
It is important that we learn to cast our care, but not our responsibility. So often we do just the opposite; we cast our responsibility, but keep our care.
There is a difference between casting our care and being passive. We need to understand that difference. As we saw in John 6:28,29, Jesus has told us that as believers our first responsibility is to believe. That should not be a struggle, because if God has told us something, we should have no problem believing it and doing what He says for us to do. And one thing He has told us to do is to cast our care upon Him, which itself can be something of a violent matter.
THE KINGDOM SUFFERS VIOLENCE
And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize — a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion].
MATTHEW 11:12
Casting is a violent word. It refers to throwing, hurling, arising, sending, striking, thrusting, driving out, or expelling — all rather forceful terms.1 In Matthew 11:12 Jesus said that since the days of John the Baptist, the Kingdom of God has endured violent assault, and violent men have seized it by force.
In a way, then, we are going to have to get violent — spiritually violent — about casting our care upon the Lord and abiding in the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty. Part of that violence is expressed in our absolute refusal to live any longer under guilt and condemnation, which can actually be worry about past mistakes.
Because I was abused for so long in my childhood, I developed a shame-based nature. I felt bad about myself all the time. I carried a load of guilt with me all my life.
When I began to get into the Word of God and discover Jesus had set me free from that burden of guilt and condemnation, it took me years to feel I was totally free of it. Although I knew mentally and spiritually I had been made the righteousness of God in Him because of what He had done for me on Calvary, I still had a hard time accepting it and living in it emotionally. The devil kept attacking my feelings, making me feel guilty and condemned. I’worried about my past — how could I ever overcome it? I fought against those feelings for years until finally I got fed up. I told the devil, “No! I am not going to live under guilt and condemnation! Jesus has made me the righteousness of God, and I have made up my mind I am going to have what He died to give me!”
The apostle Paul said he pressed on to take hold of those things for which Christ Jesus had laid hold on him. (Philippians 3:12.) That was what I was doing. I knew from the Bible I had been made right with God through the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ. I had the Scriptures in my heart and was confessing them with my mouth, but the enemy was still attacking me in my feelings — until there arose up in me a holy anger that finally set me free.
Sometimes we have to get angry enough to rise up against the principalities, powers, and wickedness in high places that try to keep us from enjoying all the blessings bought for us by Jesus Christ. Often we get mad at other people when we should be mad at the devil and his demons.
Just as anger at Satan can be a form of righteous violence, so can casting our care on the Lord. We can resist and resist Satan and the guilt, condemnation, worry, and anxiety he tries to place on us, until we get so fed up we react with a holy anger. When he tries to force us to carry a burden of care, we can stop and violently take back what Satan is trying to take from us by saying, “No! I will not carry that care. I am casting it upon the Lord!”
Everyone has their own set of problems, but has become very good at hiding them. Many people struggle with worry or guilt, anxious to the point of tears at times, on their way to church. When they get out of the car in the parking lot, they put on their, “church face” and go into the building praising the Lord. They leave the same way — until they are alone again. Then they go right back to their misery and shame.
To be free of that kind of charade, we need to engage in some holy violence. When we feel the devil starting to lay any kind of guilt, condemnation, and care upon us, we need to take it and cast it upon the Lord.
In each one of us there are certain spiritual issues that need to be settled once and for all. Whatever the issues may be that are keeping us from walking in the fullness of joy, peace, and rest the Lord intends for us, we need to cast them upon Him.
The Bible says we are to cast all our care upon God. What is a care? The Greek word translated care in 1 Peter 5:7 means “’to draw in different directions, distract’ hence signifies ‘that which causes this, a care, especially an anxious care.’”2
Why does the devil try to give us care? To distract us from our fellowship with God. That is his whole purpose. That’s why we need to learn to cast our care, but not our responsibility. In order to do that, we need to know what our responsibility is and what it is not.
THE PROBLEM OF INDEPENDENCE
Having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He careth for you.
1 PETER 5:7 WORRELL
In a footnote to this verse the Worrell New Testament says: “Having cast all your anxiety upon Him: the Greek tense here indicates a momentary and complete casting
of one’s anxiety, once for all, upon God. This, in a sense, is done when one makes a complete surrender of himself and his all to God for Him to manage at His will. When one puts the whole management of his life in God’s hands, he may reach the place where all anxiety leaves him, regardless of the outward testings that may fall to his lot.”3
Too often we are guilty of the sin of independence, which causes many problems.
A desire for independence is a sign of an immature Christian. A small child thinks he can do anything. Instead of asking for help, he wants to do everything for himself. He tries to put on his own shoes, tie his own laces, and dress himself. Often he gets the shoes on the wrong feet, ties the laces together so he trips, and gets his clothes on backward or inside out.
That’s the way we are sometimes in our Christian life. Our heavenly Father tries to help us, but we don’t want His help; we want to do everything for ourselves — and we end up making a terrible mess of things.
God wants to manage our life. He wants to handle our affairs for us as a blessing to us. But many times we reject His help and try to do things on our own. Often the result is disastrous. If we want to experience the peace of the Lord, we must learn to cast all our care upon Him permanently, as we see in Worrell’s study notes:
“Instead of casting one’s burden on the Lord, and letting it remain with Him, many Christians go to the Lord in prayer, and get some temporary relief; and then go away, and soon find themselves under the same old burden. Christians of this type have never experienced the crucifixion fully; but after this crucifixion has been well passed through, one may live without any anxious care; nothing disturbing the deep peace of the soul. But no one can reach this blissful state of mind and heart, until he first surrenders his whole being to God, receives the Holy Spirit to dwell within him, and Christ becomes real to his heart, as Ruler of that realm.”4
