Cast your cares on the Lord

Cast your cares on the Lord
    and he will sustain you;
he will never let
    the righteous be shaken.

 Psalm 55:22

Back in the late 1940's and early 50's, there was a restaurant in Los Angeles which had a basement where they had placed a beautiful garden. The unique garden was designed to represent the Garden of Gethsemane.  In one corner of this garden, there was a large stone, and kneeling beside the stone is a life-size statue of Jesus. 

One visitor stated, "As I entered the place, the garden was dimly lighted and the face of the statue was in a shadow. In that dim light, the countenance seemed careworn and weary. But as I stood watching in reverent meditation, the face began to brighten; gradually it changed until it shone with radiant light. The lines of care and weariness vanished and there came the glow of peace and spiritual strength."

Many of the lives we relate to, in school, in work, at church, in the marketplace, are carrying the heavy load of life's burdens. We are conditioned to make every effort we can to handle those situations based on our own knowledge and abilities.  While there may be some things that happen to us which can be handled that simply, there are big problems that come our way, too. Stated by one suffering person to another, "The road of life can be long and difficult, and we are but humans."  The loss of a job brings calamity. The death of a spouse or other loved one leaves us wracked by loneliness. A child addicted to alcohol or drugs breaks our heart. We have determined to complete an important task, and we fail. More and more we find ourselves in grief and agony. 

Are there answers to the difficult problems in life?  Can we put on our Superman costume and turn all our bad times into victory?  Regardless of the size of your muscles or your bank account, we all continue to face times of adversity that is beyond our ability to control. 

Then we come to a passage of Scripture like the one printed above. We realize again we serve a loving God who invites us to put the weight of our problems on him. There may be a need for repentance and there is always a need for prayer. When we learn of his invitation for us to cast our cares on him, and we trust him to handle areas of life we are not equipped to handle ourselves, we have the promise, "he will sustain us." 

That's when we also learn the look of being careworn and weary, suddenly turns to a glow of peace and spiritual strength. The weight is lifted from us and we know he is carrying the burden for us. One has prayed in a situation like this, "Father, in your presence we have gained strength to face whatever life holds."  He longs for you to have that peace. 

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