The Whole of Your Cares

1 Peter 5:6-7:  As I was reading today The Lord brought me to this Scripture.  Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you...Casting the whole of your cares on Him for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.

Prayer is the humbling of oneself.  It means to demote, and  to lower yourself in your own estimation.

 There is a word that is found over and over in the Psalms--Selah--it means to pause and calmly think on.  I know that today these are the verses that God would have me pause and think on.  There are times when I come to God in prayer that I forget to take the first step:  the humbling of my heart.  It's a crucial step and one that when I look back, I forgot to take,  an awful lot of the time.  It's the step that says " wait and remember who it is you are talking to".  It is the step that ushers me into the very presense of the One I seek--it is Worship in its truest form.  So often, being a "Type A" kind of girl, I rush in and get it done!    God is requiring me to slow it down with this step, and it is for my benefit!

I believe the first step allows me to complete the next step in these verses.  "cast the whole of your care".  The whole of my care is all my anxieties, all my worries and concerns; but it also means that I cast them unto Him once and for all.  If I don't really pause and reflect on WHO God is, then I take back that which I cast upon Him!  And what's the point of that?

This is not to say that we don't come continuously to God with the same topic, ( at least I hope it doesn't) because God allows us to see different nuances of issues and we are able to take those back to Him, not as a reporting--cause He already knows--but as a means of unburdening ourselves and laying it at His feet because He cares for us!

The "whole of my cares" can also mean the experiencing of soul-dividing anxiety.  I have had that more times than I care to say!  The only way to deal with that is to fight back with the Word of God.  My former Pastor taught us that we "don't have to fight, we GET to fight".  Jesus gave me His authority to resist the enemy of my soul!  He gave me the Sword!  I can choose to use it or I can suffer under the anxiety. 

vs 9  Withstand him:  be firm in faith-rooted, established, strong and immovable-- That is the only time when being stubborn works for me!