What Do I Do When Life is Calling?

by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: 1st Peter 5:6-7

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you."

Among the many legendary religious leaders of history, is the Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker, a turn-of-the-century Pastor known as a Preacher's Preacher.  He was once challenged to preach a sermon at 8 a.m., and he filled the church at that early hour.  The church was filled with other ministers.

The reason I bring up Rev. Parker is that he wrote a book of advice to preachers, and paramount among his points was this: "Preach often to those with troubled hearts.'

For no end of reason, here in America and throughout the world troubled hearts are a common plague among men and women.  So today I take Rev. Parker's advice.

And for our text we take a familiar but neglected text: 1st Peter 5:6-7.  The familiarity of such verses is often why they become neglected, but the real reason is often because they are so full and rich with meaning.  Like John 3:16, John 14:27, and Romans 8:28, verses so familiar to our minds that when we go back to them we give them only surface recognition, and the deeper richness goes untouched.

So let's take a good look at 1st Peter 5:6-7, a text for troubled believers.

The very first thing you need to know about this text is that you are in this verse.  For it talks about casting your cares -- your cares -- upon Him.

Face it, so very much of this world that we live in is impersonal.  We live in the age of bigness and numbers, we become defined by Social Security numbers, insurance policy numbers, credit card numbers.  Whether checking a book out of the public library or buying a can of peas at the grocery store, we are bound by the national produce code, scanners and computers.  It's actually disturbing how closely the details of our daily life foreshadow the day when the Antichrist will assign every person a number and require it for anyone to buy and sell.  There are those already recommending that as a method to thwart hackers and electronic con schemes.  And it would probably work since we are all united under amorphous numbers and group plans that make us the faceless customers.

And yet there is still one who knows each and every one of us as individuals, separated all the other trillions of people by who we are to the one who has even numbered the very hairs on our individual heads.  For God doesn't keep track of His own by cosmic computers and scanning devices.  In fact, John 10:3 tells us that God knows His own by name; by our own, individual, un-sameness name:  "To Him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear His voice, and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out."  Notice, not only does He know His own, but His own know His voice and are not fooled by imitations.

When I joined Marine Corps boot camp in 1959, one of the first tasks facing the 79 recruits in our platoon was to discern when our Drill Instructors were shouting orders at us on the parade deck where we drilled.  For marching alongside us, behind us, in front of us and across the parade deck from us were myriad other recruit platoons with their own Drill Instructors shouting orders at them.  If the voice of command rang out with "To the rear, march!", we had better not obey unless it came from one of our three Drill Instructors.  Under the dire threat of everything from repeating the entire boot camp process up to and including bruising annihilation, we quickly learned to discern "our Master's voice"!

There is no doubt in my Christian military mind that on a day of my Master's choosing, having spent a lifetime listening to the "still small voice", I will have no problem recognizing the voice of my Savior calling me home.  Incidentally, you might be interested to know where that phrase -- "still small voice" -- comes from.  It comes from 1st King 19:11-13 -- "¹¹ And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: ¹² And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.  ¹³ And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

In the same way in which we shall know our God and King, He knows us, each one of us, as individuals, even better than we know ourselves.

Perhaps you remember the story of little Zacchaeus, hiding from Jesus high in a true, from Luke 19:1-10.  He could not hide from Jesus, even among that crowd, high in the boughs of a tree.

And the woman, just one woman among many in a thronging crowd, but this woman reached out and touched the hem of Jesus' garment in Matthew 9:20-22.  Jesus knew who she was.

Oh, and the children.  Everywhere Jesus went there were children playing about Him, dancing, darting, and His disciples tried to warn them away, but Jesus told them not to keep the children from Him.  So many Jesus laid hands upon and prayed over, we see in Matthew 19:13-15, for He knew them.

In fact, we read in Matthew 17:14-18 that Jesus knew even those who were demon-possessed, and didn't forget them.  He had time for them.  He has time for all of us.

But look here, not only are you in this verse in 1st Peter, your cares, your worries, your problems are in this verse. 

What?  You mean my family, my kids, my wife or husband and all those attendant problems are in this verse?  Yes.  My financial difficulties, my future, my job, security, even the public opinions that work against me, they're in this verse?  Yes.  What about my business, the coming depression I'm reading about, the mounting debts?  Yes.  And the disastrous world conditions building up around us, the wars and rumors of more wars?  Even the Damocles sword of nuclear destruction that hangs over our heads and never seems to go away?  Yes.

Every care in your life, every care burdening your shoulders is in this verse.  But here is what you need to realize: cares are roadblocks to blessings.

Remove the roadblocks, the cares, and you can experience the joy of the Lord.  For the joy of the Lord is your strength, as Nehemiah 8:10 explains.  In the Old Testament book of the same name, Nehemiah has taken on the task of rebuilding the wall about destroyed Jerusalem.  He has the prophet Ezra call all the people together and Ezra reads to them from the Book of the Law of Moses, and there is great mourning and weeping for what has happened to the law, to Jerusalem, and to them.  Nehemiah 8:10 -- "Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”  In the midst of terrible times, enemies about them, Jerusalem in shambles, God has not forgotten them.  He knows who they are. 

Now, in addition to you and your cares being in this verse from 1st Peter, the Lord Jesus Christ is also in this verse.  For you are casting all your cares on Him ... "because He cares for you."  No one, but no one, understands you like Jesus.  "Does Jesus care when my heart is in pain?"  He cares!  "Who cares when my heart is weary?"  Jesus cares!  He waits to take on His shoulders all of our cares.

Do you perhaps wonder if Jesus cares?  If you have any question, go to the cross.  What He did for you and I on that cross at Calvary carries much more eternal impact than that He cares about our daily trials and tribulations.  And care for us, He does.

Amen.