Why is it so hard for some of us to go to God when we’re hurting?
I know for me at least, when I’m feeling down or anxious I naturally want to retreat from everyone and everything. I don’t want to have to put on happy face and pretend everything’s okay. I want to find my corner of the world and hide, and that can mean from God, too.
But instead God says to be “…casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
The word “casting” is the same word that’s used in Luke 19:35 when the disciples cast or threw their garments onto the colt that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem.
We are to take our garments of anxiety and worry and grief and discouragement – all that we care about, big or small – and lay them upon our Savior.
Why?
Why can’t I huddle in my dank little corner of the world until I feel like coming out again?
Because Jesus tells us in Mark 4:18-19 that if we hold onto the cares of this world, we will be consumed with them instead, and the Word will be choked out and rendered unfruitful in our lives.
So I have to decide to walk in the Spirit, doing what is supernatural instead of what is natural, come out of the darkness and into God’s light, giving Him those things and people and circumstances that I care so much about knowing and trusting that He cares for me.
I hope you know that He cares for you, too. Everything that concerns you, concerns Him. Nothing is too big or too small or too old or too anything.
And the thing with God is, we don’t have to put on a happy face. He knows our heart’s pain anyway, and He hates hypocrisy. We can be real with Him. He wants us to be real with Him. We can trust Him with our deepest desires and emotions and conflicts. And then, in place of our garments of anxiety, He’ll give us a garment of praise.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Psalm 139:7-12