Cast Away Your Cares, Not Your Confidence!

John Clardy

I Peter 5:7 Amplified      Casting the whole of your cares (all your worries, all your anxieties, all your concerns) once and for all on Christ, for He cares affectionately for you!

Hebrews 10:35 MKJV      Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.

A man walked all the way across the United States from Los Angeles to New York to raise money for a charitable foundation. He had many treacherous encounters on his journey. He climbed snow-capped mountains, walked through desert place and faced dangerous animals. He experienced hunger, thirst and lack of shelter.   At his journeys end, a reporter asked him, "What was the most difficult thing you had to overcome to reach your destination?"  The man paused for a moment and answered "Surprisingly, the most difficult obstacle that I faced was sand that got in my walking shoes.  I almost didn't make it because of little grains of sand."

It isn’t the large difficulties that cause the most problems in a child of God’s life, is it?  It is usually the small things that are most irritating to our spirit! When problems arise that are bigger than our ability to control, we are quick to bring those things to God.  But it is the sand in our shoes, the cares of life that wearies us and rubs blisters on our spirits.

Cares of life do not always come in the shape of problems.  They can come in the form of pursuits and possessions!  There is nothing wrong with having dreams and desires as long as they are subjective to God’s designed plan for our lives. But when those pursuits become dominating and distracting irritants, they discourage us and erode our confidence in Christ!

Hebrews 12:1-2(a) GNB  

(1)        As for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us.

(2a)       Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end.

Hebrews shows us two things that satan uses against Christians: 1. Everything that gets in the way (cares of life) and 2. The sin which holds on to us so tightly.

Hebrews also tells us 3 things that will keep them from defeating us: 1. Let us rid ourselves (cast off cares/sin) 2. Let us run with determination and 3. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

A farmer was passing a stranger with a heavy bundle and offered him a ride on his wagon.  The traveler accepted but refused to take the bundle off his back.  "I am carrying you" remarked the farmer, "but you are still carrying your burden!”

Don’t continue carrying your burden after Jesus has invited to carry it for you! Cast your cares on Him and hold on to your confidence in Christ!

Hold on to the confidence that you can come to the Lord for rest and refreshing!

Matthew 11:28 BBE   Come to me, all you who are troubled and weighted down with care, and I will give you rest.

Hold on to the confidence that God will answer your prayer according to His will!

I John 5:14 MKJV           And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Hold on to the confidence that God will complete what he begins in you!

Philippians 1:6  KJV       Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."      

Today is the day to cast away your cares.  Today is the day to hang up your hang-ups. Today is the day to get the sand out of your shoes and walk on in confidence that Jesus loves you!  He cares affectionately for you and nothing this world or satan can say or do will ever change that!