Nailed to the Cross, Part III

As we continue with our study, I'd like to move on to exploring how we can limit our stress . . .

Stress is not always a bad thing. Some stresses are good for us. Going on vacation is a positive stress that relieves negative stress. Getting a promotion at work is a positive stress. Becoming a parent is a positive stress.

We can limit negative stress by applying the counsel of Jesus.

Matt. 6:25-34, "25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 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. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

When we put the Lord first, we limit many of our negative stresses, because He has promised to meet all of our needs; He is the Rock of Ages; He is there for us in time of trouble; and He is the refuge from the storm.
The Bible does have an antidote for stress. It is called faith. Often when we are worried, it’s because we are worried about something that might happen. Many of our fears never come true. Anxiety is worry about what might happen. I think many people fear what is on the other side of the wall. We cloud our minds with so much of the darkness of doubt, that we prevent the sunshine of hope from coming into view.

Heb. 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Heb. 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

The Bible also encourages us to be cheerful.

Ps. 51:12 "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit."

I'm sure that you can point to many other verses about joy and cheerfulness.

So, we can limit worry, anxiety, and stress. But here is where the rubber meets the road....many of us will take our burdens to the cross, and lay them there. But as we turn to go, one hand will slip out and grab it up! We must leave our troubles with Him!
Our title for this study is "Nail it to the Cross." I want to encourage each of us to visualize taking our burden to the foot of Christ's cross. Then I want you to pick it up and hold it against the cross, as high up as you can. Take a hammer, and nail that worry, that anxiety, that stress, to His cross.
You see, it takes a lot more to take back your burden if you have put it there more permanently. You will need to get your hammer back out, and slip the clawfoot portion under the nail and pry, and pry, and pry.
Let's leave our burdens with Him -- He is powerful, and compassionate; He cares for us; He is able to handle anything we nail onto the Cross.

Nailed to the Cross

I'm going a little off base here today....the Lord laid something on my heart that I wanted to share. We'll resume in Proverbs soon.

Many of us have heard the wise counsel "hand over your burdens to the Lord" and "lay your worries at His feet" and other such sayings. These are all very true and very wise. They are even scriptural; for example, Peter tells us to cast our cares upon Him, for He cares for us.

Then why do we, as Christians, and especially as Christian women, have so much trouble with worry and anxiety?  I think this is a topic that we need to explore, and I hope to take a day or two and look at it with you, my friends in Christ.

You'll see, in time, the reason for my title. For now, let's start our study:

"Casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you." I Peter 5:7

Do you notice that instead of "cast" in the verse, it says "casting"? In my studies for this series, I read that there's a reason for that. The "ing" on the end makes it a participle (I probably should have paid a lot more attention to that grammar professor) and it means that it's dependent on the premise from verse six --- that had to do with humbling ourselves.
Here is how both verses look together:
⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

"Casting" is not a command, but a way of humbling ourselves. We humble ourselves by realizing that we must hand over our cares, anxieties and worries to God. His care, then, comes to us when we depend on His grace.
Sometimes I tell you about the Hebrew words and their meanings -- today we need to look at the Greek. Casting means to "throw upon, roll onto, deposit with." The secular Greek language used "casting" to draw a picture of a man who carried a heavy burden and threw it onto a camel's back.  God wants us to roll our burdens onto Him. Instead of anxiety that causes us to panic, to lose focus, God wants us to have a target for those worries -- that target is Him.
God doesn't design the circumstances and situations of our lives to break us, but to "make" us. We need to move from trusting in our own strength and in our own strategies, to resting in God, and in His resources.
He is willing and able to carry the heaviest burden for us.
When you are under pressure from worry, stop and take a breath. Remember you are His child, and relax in His grace.

“Blessed be the Lord,
Who daily loads us with benefits,
The God of our salvation! Selah” (Psalm 68:19).

We'll talk more about this in the next few days. I hope you'll join me.

Prov 30:7-9 Only give me what I can handle!

“Two things I ask of you, Lord;
    do not refuse me before I die:
⁸ Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
    give me neither poverty nor riches,
    but give me only my daily bread.
⁹ Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
    and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
    and so dishonor the name of my God.

When I was little (chronologically, not physically), I was fascinated by the grandfather's clock in the hallway of my grandparents' home.  "Don't touch!" was often repeated to me as I longingly gazed at it. The pendulum swinging back and forth was absolutely mesmerizing.

We can experience pendulum swings in life, too, can't we? They are not nearly so pleasant as those of my childhood, but it appears they happen to everyone. Our writer here is asking God to give him "just enough."
He's afraid that if he has too little; if his bills outstrip his income; if he is below the poverty line, as politicians like to say, that he will find it far too easy to justify his sin. He may cheat and steal, just to fill the bellies of his family. He may fall into other sins as well, and all of these will serve to dishonor the name of his Lord.
On the other hand, if he has wealth, it may be too easy to forget where the blessings came from. He fears the apathy and the nonchalance of "well, I have all these things -- why do I need God?" He knows the human soul and the tendency to think that somehow we deserve all of these things, or that they are ours simply because of us -- not the holy God Who gave them to us.
So Agur is reaching out and trying to stop the pendulum right in the middle . . . not all the way on one side, where the wealth and riches are, but not all the way on the other side, either. That is where the poverty and want are. He is hoping to be right in the middle.
But you know, if we always are in the middle, we'll never, ever grow! It takes times of poverty to test us and allow us to grow in faith. And it takes times of blessing to see if we can respond in wisdom to the wealth God gives us.

Psalm 66:10 For you, oh God, have proved us; You have tried us as silver is tried, refined, and purified.
Hebrews 2:18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.
James 1:3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
II Corinthians 8:2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

Yes, "just enough" is a good place to be, but when life's pendulum swings to one extreme or the other, let's try to accept the testing and ask for His wisdom to handle it --- because we know it may swing the other way soon! 

But my plans failed!

Monday- We cleaned house.
Tuesday- We made plans and committed them to God.
Wednesday- We purged.
Thursday- We worked towards our Ultimate Purpose.

Before we begin today's passage take a moment to read back through Proverbs 16: 1-7 and think about each step to having a good, purposeful, committed, well planned day.

So here you are, you planned out your day. You committed it to God. You made sure that sins were confessed so that you could become more intimate with God so that you could work towards the ultimate purpose of pleasing God...but your plans just did not work out.

Perhaps your husband got laid off. You got sick. There was a death of someone very close to you. The car broke down. What happened? You did everything you were supposed to do!

Read Proverbs 16: 8-9 now. Whoa, hold up...what did verse 9 say? Basically it says that even though you made your plans...which is a good thing by the way, nothing wrong with making plans...what ultimately happens is up to God.

Look up James 4:13-17.

These weekend, make your plans. Seek God's will. And when things don't go your way, remember God is in charge. Submit to His authority. And realize that even when something tragic, something so terrible happens that you just can't understand why, that God knows. He knows what is best. It's in His plan. Trust in Him.