Cast Thy Burden

"cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain Thee" Ps. 25:22

The precept to avoid anxious care is earnestly inculcated by our Saviour, again and again, it is reiterated by the apostles and it is one which cannot be neglected without involving transgression, for the very essence of anxious care is the imagining we are wiser than God, and the thrusting ourselves into HIs place to do for HIm that which He has undertaken to do for us.........want of confidence in God leads us to wander far from HIm......."Thou wilt keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because He trusteth in Thee" Spurgeon 

Trust is the place that peace and joy come from...not having a job, or health. Trust in the goodness and ableness of our Father to meet our needs, to care for us, to see what we cannot see. SO stop resisting this O blasphemous heart. you have a good Father that sees your cares and knows them better then you. Look forward with expectation how He will meet your needs, even if its manna from the sky or ravens swooping low. He delights to do what no other can do.

A Wide Space

" You are legalistic" Those were the words spoken by my husband this morning and they have echoed in my mind and bounced around the walls of my heart all day. At first the reaction was denial....." That cant be....I know I can't earn His love, I know I can never achieve perfection on my own" Yet why do I try so hard to? There seems to be some kind of disconnect from my head to my heart...I know so much ..I do and live so little. I long to walk in freedom and grace and offer that to others, yet I am so tightly wound, trying to hard to hold it all together, afraid to drop one ball only to watch the whole show come pounding down around my ears. And is this not what I'm offering those closest to me as I view them as extensions of me. If my husband and children are not holding it all together, then their mess becomes mine. This results in harshness, anger , frustration, ending in guilt and remorse.
All Jesus gives me is a wide place "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy; I came that hey might have life and might have it more abundantly" John 10: 10-11
"From my distress I called upon the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a large place" Psalm 118:5
He does not micromanage and dictate my life but He invites me to freedom and true life, a life found only in Him, only when I walk through Him as a door. And the only way I can fit through the door is to leave all my efforts and idols and SELF. So yes, I am a recovering legalistic Pharisee. I often leave that wide space and lock myself back in my cell and insist that everyone join me.....and its only when I realize He is the one with the key and He has forever freed me and He is pleased with me and He delights in me, that my heart sighs with relief. My stomach unclenches, He brings the life and He will bring that life to others as it spills out of my own freedom, not my striving.

Let there be light

I was thinking this morning that there are two types of anxiety: anxiety over what is real ( Jonny losing his job) and anxiety over what is not real ( I'm dying of cancer). The real source of anxiety is here and your looking it in the face-yet the Lord can bring such a sweet sense of peace, and hope and even joy in the midst of very real darkness. However, with the not so real anxiety-it is shifting shadows-never looking you square in the face. Always slipping out of the way when the light comes on or you try to call it by its real name. And there is no peace, no hope and no joy to get through it because its not really there. The only solution is to switch on the light.

" God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all " 1John 1:5
" Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shift due to change" James 1:16-17
" I am the light of the world, he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life" John 8:12

So, very plainly, where He is there can be no darkness, no shadows. If its a good gift and brings light its from Him....if it shifts  about and resembles darkness it is not from Him.

Why is it I am falling back into the shadows so often? The shadows of fear, anxiety, and crushing  worry? Why cant I just keep up with Him? Stay close and abide and bask in the warmth of His all embracing, all illuminating, joy producing light? I cant hang on to Him and hang onto my fears. I cant have Him and control over my life, my body, my finances. I have to lift hands up, palms open. Offer the days of my life to Him-the minutes and hours I have left to live-the provision, the manna, the daily bread to live out those days. I only have to surrender and receive. Surrender my clinging, tight-fisted control for His freedom. Give up dark brooding unrest for His peace, give up my discontent and grumbling for His joy.
Lord, let Your light shine!