6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you. 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 So resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brothers and sisters who are in the world. 10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:6-11

We fill our heads with worries. The anxiety and stress of everyday living can be overwhelming. And while living with daily anxiety, we meet events that shake our lives. We lose our jobs, or a loved one falls ill. We get into an accident or suffer a great injustice. Whatever it is, we need to trust God. We need to place all our anxieties on Him because, truth told, God is the only one who can carry this burden. We don’t have the ability or power to overcome anxiety.

From this moment on, it might be hard to do, but let’s cast all our worries on Him. Every problem in our lives… every issue we have to focus our attention on… whatever the case, let’s put it in God’s hands. Am I going to be healthy or sick? Am I going to succeed or fail? Am I going to be rich or poor? Am I going to be infected with a deadly disease or not? Let’s leave these issues to God. Let’s cast all our anxieties on Him. 

Why? Because He is the omnipotent and omniscient one. In the end, He will do what is best for us. He will do what is best for our salvation. We don’t know what is good for us with our limited vision. Our definition of good and bad falls into easy boxes. We want to be wealthy, healthy, and free. But sometimes, God knows better. It might be better for us to hit rocky times. It might be better for us to get sick. It might be better for us to lose everything. We don’t know, but God does. Trust Him. We need to let down our guard and trust God has a plan for us, and that so-called “bad things” we encounter are not there to destroy us. It happens for a reason. Cast all your worries on Him. 

We claim to love ourselves, but that love is incomplete, ineffective, and weak. Yes, we should love ourselves, but we can’t love ourselves the way God loves us. He loves us with His unceasing wisdom and power. God can revive the dead, create something out of nothing, knock down what is big, and set high what is weak. He is the all-powerful God, and He loves us! Trust in this love, that He knows what is best for us and gives us situations in life that, whether we understand or not, is for our own good. 

Knowing God is doing what is best for us, what should we do? We should follow His guidance. It might not make sense and seem like the wrong thing to do. But if God is telling us to do something, do it! He knows what is best. God guides us to make us complete human beings. He guides us to correct our weak points and fortify our strong points. Do not obey Him with conditions or obey Him based on what you perceive will be the results. We can do better than that.  

But how long and how far should we obey Him? We must follow Him to the point the dead come to life. In other words, we must obey to the point God’s miracles save us, and we start our lives of obedience again. Daniel believed to the point he was tossed in the lion’s den. For all intents and purposes, Daniel was thrown to His death. But he did not succumb or waver. And so God delivered Him through a miracle, and he was able to continue his life of obedience until the next obstacle and the next miracle. That’s how we have to live. Believe in God to the point He has to deliver us through miracles! 

Let’s cast all our anxieties on Him. Let’s relieve ourselves of all our burdens, the thoughts that keep us up at night. The Bible says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” We can fret and worry, but it does nothing because we are not omnipotent or omniscient. Leave it all in God’s hands because He knows what is best. He will lead us to situations and circumstances we need to complete our salvation and become whole. So from this moment on, let it all go. Cast all your anxieties on Him and see how your life changes. 

Click for Korean sermon https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1983-9-25a