How to Dispose of Trouble and Care
By Uriah Smith
In Peter’s manifold economic instruction to Christians, he lays down the following directions: “Casting all your care upon him [that is, Jesus]; for he careth for you.” The Interlinear Translation, by Bagster, expresses a part of this passage in these words: “Casting all your care upon him, because with him there is care about us.” The Sermon Bible says there is nothing so beautifully true to the real meaning of this passage as this translation. At the same time we must guard against confusion of thought in regard to this word “care.” Care can never be to God what it is to us. Therefore the instruction to cast all our care upon him, can never make him weary or unhappy. The expression as applied to God is very different from what it is when applied to us. We can read the text (1 Peter 5:7) thus: “Casting all your anxious care and perplexity upon him; for to God all that concerns you is dear.” This carries the thought, and conveys the comfort it is meant to express. The word “care” is used in the Scriptures in both a good and a bad sense; as, for instance, cares “choke the word.” Matt. 13:22. Yet we are to have “care one for another.” 1 Cor. 12:25. But we are instructed to “take no thought for the morrow,” that is, no troublous thoughts, or anxiety, for the future, which we cannot change in any respect, even to the changing of one hair white or black, or adding to, or taking from, our stature one cubit, to make it longer or shorter. We are to understand in this sense what Paul says in Phil. 4:6: “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Inspiration here uses a word to carry out the full idea, which is another matter, and in some respects a more difficult matter. The word used is “casting all your care upon him.” It does not say, simply placing, or laying, as if quietly, all your care upon him, but “casting.” This word requires an earnest, and it may be persistent, effort. The instruction is to remove the burden of care from where it has been to the place where we wish it to be, where it will not be to us a galling and wearing load. The psalmist uses the same word: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord.” Ps. 55:22. When we do this, casting all our burden, or cares, upon Christ, then comes “the peace of God which passeth all understanding,” which is promised to keep our minds and hearts through Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:6. Christ is not only the sin-bearer, but the care-bearer, for his people. But many people seem to think it more easy to cast their sins upon Christ than to cast their cares upon him. Why is this? — Because they trust God as a God of grace, and not as a God of providence. The forgiveness of sin they seem to look upon as something that takes place in the spiritual realm, far out of their sight. Therefore they can more easily bring themselves to believe that that work has taken place. But cares are something that is present to our senses, that we take cognizance of with our own minds. Therefore it is harder or more difficult to believe that these have been removed, and that it is our privilege to believe that they are cast upon him, and have been removed, and we need not bear them any more ourselves. And here is the difficulty we find in believing this. And there is danger too; for we are liable to deceive ourselves, and think we have trusted in Christ when we have not, because the plane of action is so far from our plane of perception and from our own senses. But can this really be the case? Can we really believe in a God of grace and not believe in a God of providence? We are to believe him and trust him in spiritual things. When we confess our sins, we are to believe that he forgives us our sins, and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Is it not just as much our privilege to believe in regard to our temporalities, and when we cast our cares upon him, believe that he receives them, and that they are in his keeping, and we can confidently and cheerfully go on our way, leaving all our cares on his unburdened shoulders, where they will remain, pressing us down no more? Here is the difference between the Christian and the man of the world: The Christian is not a man who has no burdens, but one who knows where to place them, and find rest and support in all his troubles. The Christian is not a man who has no cares, but the man who, when he has them, casts them on the Lord, and in place of them comes away with the peace that passeth all understanding, which is able to keep his heart and mind in Christ Jesus. This is one of the unlimited promises of God. There are no reservations made. It embraces “all your cares.” And sin is one of them. Let them all go. U. S.