Casting our cares

Oh, Peter!
You have given us a tall order in these verses:

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. (I Peter 5:6-7)

Many times in the business that we work in, hubby and I find that a company has been asked to take a product and without drawings or specifications, create another -- a duplicate. Creating something from nothing is not a simple, easy task! The only real way to do this quickly is to have what is called a "golden" device or circuit board. An example. Engineers are able then to shorten the process; they can produce a duplicate from the example.

As my grandma used to say, "it's hard to make something without a pattern or a picture." (Grin)
How can we do what Peter is urging us to do?
We talked last time about how humility means we may be unappreciated, unrewarded, maybe even "lose face." That's a future that creates anxiety in us.....we need a pattern. We need an example.

Jesus is our example in all things. Amen? Amen. We will study how He shows us to take our anxious thoughts to God.
Let's look at some verses:

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” (Matthew 26:36-46)

In this passage, Jesus was coming up on the worst ordeal that any human has ever undergone; He was going to be cut off, separated from His heavenly Father, even though He had never sinned. After the Passover meal, He went into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Many of us utter quick, "God, please help me!" prayers at times, and that is a fine prayer -- but Jesus was going to pray intensely, desperately, and longingly to the Father. He needed God more than ever.
So, He went into Gethsemane and took with Him what folks call the "inner circle" of His disciples: Peter, James, and John. He asked them to pray as well.

Ahh! There is our first lesson!  We need the support of others in prayer. Jesus took them with Him not just for their own good. He also took them with Him to have their support. He asked them to pray. It's perfectly alright to let people know that we need prayer. I know, I know, I have felt that way too: you almost feel like it's selfish to bring up your own needs....the people listening have needs and crises, too. Or we may be afraid of people gossiping about us....too many people will know "our business." But the bottom line is, Jesus is our example here. Remember what James says?

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

And Paul asked the Ephesians to pray for him:

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, . . . (Ephesians 6:18-19a)

Prayer is a bit of a mystery. We don't fully understand why our all-powerful God chooses to work through our prayers, but He does, and He certainly works through the prayers of others on our behalf. I think a great example for us on this, is the story of the man who couldn't walk, so his friends brought him to Jesus to be healed. The crowds were so intense around the house where Jesus was teaching, that the men took their friend up on the roof, and lowered him down into the house! They didn't worry about embarrassing their friend, did they? (Grin) But remember what happened? "When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." And the man was healed, and got up and walked.
Jesus didn't heal on account of the lame man's faith -- but on account of his friends' faith, because they interceded on his behalf.
Wow~ good friends to have, no?
Another lesson from this passage is that if we need others to support us in prayer, then we should be willing (eager!) to return the favor. We should look for opportunities to pray for others. What if someone mentions a prayer request to us...... what would be more powerful, and more encouraging to them -- if we say, "would it be OK to pray with you right now?" Or if we say, "sure, I will pray about that," and walk away. Even worse, if we walk away and forget their request!

Jesus needed His three closest disciples to stay near Him and intercede for Him in prayer. Unfortunately, they had an epic fail here.
They let Him down.
And guess what? People may let us down, too. But if we follow Jesus as our example, don't count them out of our lives. Give them a second chance. We need people to uplift us in prayer.

Tomorrow we will continue in this passage in Matthew......