I Peter 5:7 in the Living Translation says: "Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you". As I was laying in bed this morning praying, that scripture came to me. I gave my Wednesday evening life group a writing assignment for next week and I am participating as well about writing things down that have/are bothering you and you feel are hindering your inner healing. So, while I was praying this morning, I heard the Lord say to me, "practice what you preach". Hmmm, I thought I was doing that but obviously not. I started thinking back over the week and some things that transpired. One of them is I have had chest pains all week- I have issues with heart palpitations and even though my doctor tells me they are nothing to worry about, they are bothersome, so I have a certain medication that I will take when I feel them coming on. This week I haven't had them, but I have had the chest pains instead. Knowing the signs of a heart attack in women, I checked myself and I didn't have "those" symptoms. I even asked my daughter what were the symptoms of a "gall bladder" attack cause I thought THAT was the problem. It's not that I was looking for something to be wrong, I was just experiencing "discomfort" in a way I had never experienced. My neck hurt- my head hurt- in fact my whole body hurt. This morning in prayer He said these words to me, "You are not casting all of your care on Me". Well duh, I thought I was~~ but I realized I was being ANXIOUS. What? Seriously? I remembered something I read in a blog that said , "“Be anxious for nothing.” Philippians 4:6. Usually people are anxious about virtually everything. It’s a corrosive disease, like a snake slithering around in your thoughts, strangling your life in God. Your thoughts tumble around in a dark labyrinth, and the same destructive thoughts come up, over and over again. But when you cast all your burdens on the Lord, heaven opens up. Like a snake slithering around in my thoughts strangling my life in God? That is exactly what I was feeling! Now I know why He said I was not casting all of my care on Him. CAST comes from the Greek word "epiriptó", a verb meaning to literally throw, throw away, throw off. Instead of throwing away my cares, I was letting my cares and my thoughts slither around in my head like a snake, strangling my life in Jesus. My thoughts were tumbling around in my head in a "dark labyrinth". As I pictured myself in this dark labyrinth, I was walking into the walls, nope that wasn't the way out, so I was turning around trying to find the right path to lead me out of this darkness. During all of that the chest pains become more intense, my heart was pounding out of my chest- my head was pounding-the "same" symptoms I had been having, when those same words came back to me. "You are not throwing your care onto Me". I shared with my life group many weeks back how He said the very same thing to me as I had taken on care about another issue and I saw myself out in a lake, with waders and a fishing rod and reel. My "care" was a big pile of garbage that I put on the end of my hook and I "cast" (threw) that big pile of garbage to Him. This time is different- I had let the cares of the world and all of the "not knowing" get to me. I had let the feelings of being "cooped up" wreak havoc in me. I am a person who internalizes everything and that means I also keep my feelings to myself most of the time of whats going on inside of me. This time instead of it being a big pile of garbage I was casting off, it was much deeper- more intense. I was allowing myself to be "agitated and disturbed" by what I was reading on social media, in the news, etc to control my thoughts. I was letting actions by certain people in my house control my emotions, wanting to scream to the top of my lungs. It all became very evident-- I was having all of these symptoms because I was taking on care- about everything. Yes we are living in uncertain times. Yes we are in a pandemic situation. Yes we are being shaken to our very core. Yes there is fear and dread of the "unknown" but THAT DOES NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT THE BIBLE AND GOD ARE THE ABSOLUTE ONLY 2 THINGS WE CAN TRUST IN AND DEPEND ON! Hebrews 12:27 says "everything that CAN be shaken, WILL be shaken". As a woman, we try to figure things out, come up with a "way" to fix it. Well, this is NOT the sort of thing we can fix!! When I finally settled it in my mind and realized I was not the "fixer" in this situation, and threw (literally pictured myself THROWING every care onto Him) then peace-- peace that only HE can give settled over me, peace that not only calms the storm on the raging sea, but calms the storm inside of me. And I know all of the symptoms this physical body has been experiencing will be calmed too!~~ Blessings on you today!
