Casting Cares part 5
Don't let "stuff" (or people for that matter) live in your mind rent free. What you give your attention to is really what you empower. That's how you make mountains out of molehills--by focusing on them. Because what you magnify is what manifests in your life. What you feed is what will grow. And if you spend your whole life running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to "fix" every problem that comes your way--or worse yet trying to FIND problems to fix... you'll miss out on your whole life! Guys, we were not called to be world changers or history makers. We were called to be God's Son(s). We were called to be loved and to love another. Here's the sort of sneaky part though: When we let God love us and when we love one another with that same love... we, in a sense, change the world. History is HIS story, right? So when we are His witness, when we tell His story--again, by receiving and releasing His love--we BECOME history makers. The Word is the Word. The truth is the truth. Nothing can change that. But when the Word is made flesh... when love becomes charity (love IN ACTION)... that's when the Kingdom of God--which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost--manifests! The Kingdom is within you. And when you set your affection on things above... when you SEE clearly with the eyes of the heart as the light of the world shines... that's when it starts to show up on earth as it is in heaven. That's when we start to EXPERIENCE the days of heaven ON earth. That's when all the surface "stuff" gets swallowed up by the REAL stuff. The deep stuff. The inner man, hidden man of the heart stuff. That's when what's inside (again, the Kingdom) starts to come out! And THAT'S how we cast our cares on Him. Not by going around whining and crying about everything and everybody. Not by looking for things to fight and conquer. But simply by letting all that stuff go. By laying aside the weight and the sin that so easily besets us. By understanding that everything is already UNDER our feet. How else could we be OVERCOMERS? Because Jesus came down to where we were and brought us up to where He is. You can't trip on something that's under your feet. Unless you focus on it, and make it bigger (more real) than it really is. In 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Paul wrote, "Abstain from all appearance of evil." And to me that never meant, "Stay away from something if it even LOOKS like evil." To me that always meant, Jesus dealt with good and evil BOTH. He cursed the fig tree--the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of death--and now there's only the Tree of Life left. So stay out of the whole appearance realm. I could say it like this, "Abstain from all appearance of GOOD too." Stop judging things by appearance. Good and evil? No thank you. I'll eat from the other tree and experience LIFE and that more abundantly. I'll cast my cares on the Lord--because I know He cares for me--by setting my affection on things above. The unseen, eternal things. Righteousness, peace, and joy. Mercy, forgiveness, and grace. LOVE. We are the light of the world, which means there is no darkness in us at all. Jesus remade the world in His image. Which means He is the Alpha and Omega. Beginning and end. And everything in between!