Humble Yourself and Trust God

I cast all my cares upon you

I lay all of my burdens down at your feet

and anytime that I don’t know what to do

I will cast all my cares upon you.

(Song by Kelly Willard)

What a beautiful old song! I love the tune, I love the words, and I sing it often while doing house chores. I wish the words of this song were true in my life though. I wish I wouldn’t just sing about giving Jesus all my cares and burdens, but would always just give them to him and learn to rest in him. The truth is, many times when I don’t know what to do, my first reaction is to worry and try to fix things instead of giving my burdens to him.

“Casting our anxieties on him…” We sing about it, we read about it, we talk about it, we pray about it, we teach about it, we write about it. But most of the time we don’t really obey it. I can think of several occasions when I have said to the Lord, “I give you all control over this situation” only to turn around and begin to supervise his work and give him advice and due dates. Many times we give our cares to the Lord in the same way that we play with a yo-yo. We let it go but we take it up again. No wonder we are exhausted! So, what would it take for us to go beyond singing, reading, talking, praying, teaching, and writing about casting all our cares upon Jesus, to actually do it?

The answer is humility. As 1 Peter 5 V6-7 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” The reason we can’t give our burdens to Jesus is because of our pride. Pride says, “I can carry my own burdens.” Humility says, “I will cast my burdens on the Lord because he will sustain me” (Psalm 55 V22). Pride says, “I must fix this impossible situation.” Humility says, “My God is able to do far more abundantly than all that I ask or think according to the power at work within me” (Ephesians 3 V20). Pride is exhausting. Humility is relaxing (Matthew 11 V28-30).

Are you in a seemingly impossible situation and do not know what to do? Are you tired of carrying burdens you are not meant to carry? Be humble. Recognize that you are not almighty and let God, who is, take control. Brother, sister, God’s hand is mighty and he cares for you. He cares about that impossible situation you are in. He sees the burdens you are carrying, and he wants you to humble yourself and give them to him.

My prayer is that you and I will press on to obey the commandment to humble ourselves and to cast all our anxieties on Jesus. 1 Peter 5 V6-7 is a great passage we can memorize, so when we feel that we don’t know what to do, we will not despair but we can say, “I will give my burdens to the only One who can carry them. He carried the cross for me. He carried my sins. He promises to carry my burdens. I will trust him.” So, let us repent of our pride, humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God, and give to him all our anxieties. Only by doing so, will we find rest for our souls.