flour, salt and life

This morning (way too early if you ask me) I got up to make my sisters cinnamon rolls for breakfast. As I sat there waiting for them to rises and the oven to heat up I started thinking about the process of baking or cooking ( a very dangerous thing this early in the morning). I thought about how to make the delicious breakfast I took flour, salt, yeast, milk, butter, sugar, yeast and cinnamon. Mixed them a certain way and order to get a cinnamon roll. Then I started thinking about all the applications that flour has. It is in almost every baked good, a thickener for gravies and sauces, it is used  as a coating on fried items and the main ingredient in homemade playdough. All this is achieved by adding and working the flour in different ways. (stay with me here. I told you it is a very dangerous thing me thinking this early in the morning.) The next thought that came up was how God takes men which are on the most concrete of terms the same, the flour if  you will. Add different things to our lives to make us each into a different item. Thing live where you grew up, how you were raised, your emotions, your personality, your worldview, trials in your life. So when God is done working with us we each look and act different even if we started in the same household with the same rules and parents. What I am not saying is that God makes anyone of us to sin but that we run different ways when confronted with a trail or test. Some will run to God as we all should and some will run the other way. In the book of Jeremiah in chapter 18 the Lord God told the prophet Jeremiah to go and watch the potter work. As Jeremiah stood there watching God spoke to him again and said in verse 6 "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. "  The same is true for us non Israelites, we are clay in the Father's hand.                  

cast and care

"When fear feels bigger than my faith

And struggles steal my breath away

When my back's pressed up against the wall

With the weight of my worries stacked up tall

You're strong enough to hold it all 

I will cast my cares on You

You're the anchor of my hope

The only one who's in control

I will cast my cares on You

I'll trade the troubles of this world

For Your peace inside my soul"

That is the start to Cast My Cares by Finding Favor.

As I listened to that song this week my focus was drawn to the words "cast" and "cares". Cast means to throw something forcefully in a specified direction. Cares means serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk. It can also mean to feel concern or interest; attach importance to something. Putting it all together to "cast my cares" is to throw what is holding all of my attention or thoughts in the direction of the one who promises to give me peace. 

The song goes on to say 

 "This war's not what I would've chosen

But You see the future no one knows yet

And there's still good when I can't

See the working of Your hands

You're holding it all"

The whole reason why God can give peace as we throw him our fears, worries and concerns, is because He is total and complete control. One would think with the amount that I talk about God being in control I would have that aspect of trusting down pat. Far form the truth! 

Another thing about God when we cast our cares on him is he ACCEPTS them all! No care is to small, He takes them all without sorting them they are all important to him. So never be afraid to cast your cares to God in prayer he is all ways there and never leaves you alone. In fact he is waiting to hear from you. He is waiting for you to stop trying to figure it out on your own and for you to look up and reach for him.