Wednesday – February 3, 2016
The nutrients in foods are distributed in our physical bodies and the useless part discarded so must our Spiritual food (Word of God) be distributed in our spiritual bodies to strengthen us and make us more like Him. Just as physical food can’t just be looked at, talked about, even chewed on, it must be swallowed and subjected to the digestive process so must our Spiritual food. We make a decision to swallow physical food and so we must make a decision to swallow Spiritual food. So here comes God’s Word for hump day which is a continuation of the study of Spiritual Warfare from First Peter Chapter Five.
1 Peter 5:5-10 (KJV)
5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
I will pick up our study at verse seven today. Be absolutely clear that all of this passage works together, we cannot pick one phrase or verse and disregard the others. It is like many things in the natural, if one part is missing the whole thing either does not work or is in some way dysfunctional. So if we don’t like being subject one to another don’t plan on the casting of our cares on Him to be of much avail. In fact those who are proud, arrogant, have a very hard time casting their cares anyway because they believe they are self-sufficient. To consider oneself self-sufficient is to consider oneself as being your own god. That is a deception of the enemy, if the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not our God then by default the enemy, Satan, is our god. In that position of believing oneself to be self-sufficient we are thinking, talking, and acting according to the way of the world, and the god of the world is Satan.
2 Corinthians 4:4 (KJV)
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Now the $64,000 question is; “how do I cast my cares on Him?”
1 Peter 5:7 (KJV)
7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
The act or reality of casting our cares on God occurs first in our thought life then it is manifest by our words and finally by our actions. We have very recently analyzed the following verse but let’s take another look at it and speak it out loud choosing to make it reality in our lives.
2 Corinthians 10:5 (KJV)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
The word ‘casting’ here means to put down as in below something else (Word of God) or to destroy. Every thought is to be subject to the Word of God and if contrary to the Word than it is to be placed in a place inferior to the Word or destroyed altogether. Now let’s see what Jesus had to say.
Matthew 6:31-33 (KJV)
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek🙂 for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
When a thought comes we do not need to take it, making it our own, and then ruminate on it with worry. The word ‘thought’ here is anxiety. As far as the questions about eating and clothing that could just as well be “where will I live”, “what I will drive”, and so on?” We are not to worry or have any anxiety about the natural things upon which we have need. The reason we are not to have worry or have anxiety is that our Heavenly Father knows our needs and will supply them to overflowing as we carry out our assignment of the Kingdom of God. Jesus then says that we are to seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness first, as we put God first, He puts us first. On the job do you get paid on Monday or Friday?
Yesterday I spoke about our responsibility to vote. Let me make a point here that is useful in our process of understanding issues, the position of candidates and if they are seeking after the Kingdom of God and righteousness (doing it God’s way) or not. Many politicians have rewritten Matthew 6:33 as follows: I am going to solve your economy and then if you want to talk about the Kingdom of God and His righteousness you can certainly do so behind the four walls of your Church. Seek out the party and candidate that seeks to honor God because then and only then can this country be honored by God and once again be the hope of the world, of all the earth, a light upon a hill. Honoring God includes protecting life from the time of conception, honoring the marriage of a man and a woman and the marriage bed, honoring Israel and blessing her at every opportunity, and honoring the God given right of self-defense.
When we cast our cares, we take the inferior idea of the Serpent and we destroy it from our thinking by applying (thinking, speaking, acting upon) the superior idea of God.
By Pastor David R. Wood
