Cast your cares on Him

We all undergo trials and tribulations in our lives.

No matter how much we try to have organised lives and to be as systematic as possible and do everything as correctly as possible, there will sometimes be occasions when we go through difficult times.

What kind of difficult times?

(1) In the workplace, we may encounter colleagues with whom we have conflict. Or we may be having challenges keeping a client or customer happy. Sometimes, others expect us to be perfect in our work and lives. But we are not perfect. It is precisely because we are not perfect that Jesus came for us and died for us on the Cross. Grace is undeserved and unmerited favour. If we are perfect and are more than capable of keeping all the Ten Commandments, God did not need to send His beloved Son to be our Saviour.

(2) Amongst our family, relatives and friends, we may encounter interpersonal conflict or misunderstandings. Just when the relationship seems to be picking up, things back-slide.

What do we do? At times like this, it is human to feel that we are all alone and the Lord does not care. We may feel that things are overwhelming us and we do not know how much more of this we can take. We may feel that despite the number of relatives and friends we have, we feel all alone and no one around us understands what we are going through nor cares.

However, the truth of the matter is that the Lord does care. He wants us to cast our cares upon Him. There is nothing too big for Him to handle. His shoulders are big enough to carry all of us and all our problems.

Does this mean that we sit back and just adopt a "la-di-da" attitude and leave it to God to make things work for us? How does this reconcile with the saying "God helps those who help themselves"?

Firstly, we need to know that the phrase "God helps those who help themselves" is not biblical. This, however, does not mean that we do nothing. Sometimes, some action is required on our part. For example, if we have an examination coming up in school, it does not mean that we do not study for the examination and simply say, "Oh, I leave it to the Lord to give me a distinction in this examination". By all means, do study but the point is that we should not worry about the outcome.

On the other hand, we should not try to achieve things solely by our works. This is not the way of God. The Ten Commandments represent law (that is, works). It is not possible to keep all the Ten Commandments. What about the incident this morning when an irresponsible driver suddenly cut across the lane in front of your car and you had to suddenly brake, resulting in "rivers of dirty water" coming out from your mouth? We cannot live a life of yo-yo between works and faith.

As such, when we are going through a difficult time, let us believe that we are not alone. Our Lord will never leave us nor forsake us. He will take care of us.

At times like this, we do what we have to do to tackle the situation at hand but let us not lose sleep over it. Worry never solves problems. The problem has been solved and taken care of by God. So do not worry about the outcome. It is not merely saying with our mouth that the Lord will take care of us - we have to believe it as well.

(To my dear friend GP, hold onto His Word and believe that He has made the way for you. He loves you and He will see you through.)