The Bible is full of reassurances, promises and encouragements. One of my favorites is God’s invitation for us to cast our problems on Him, for He cares for us (1 Pet. 5:7). How amazing it is that our Almighty God has the capacity and concern for all our burdens.
To be clear, 1 Peter 5:7 does not tell us to cast some or many of our burdens upon the Lord. The Lord invites us to cast all our cares on Him. All is a very big word. Though only one syllable of three letters, it has no limits in its scope and no cutoff points in its application. All includes the great and the small, the major and the minor adversities we face. The same Lord who handles our bigger problems is intimately concerned about our smaller ones. This is a precious, personal promise we can discover in times of adversity.
If you know the Lord, you know the God of small things. He isn’t merely concerned about the massive issues of life. He is a God of the details, and nothing is beyond His scope. The same divine hand that created the Giant Sequoias of California also made the Wolffia, the smallest flowering plant on earth. It’s a perfectly beautiful miniature; five thousand of them can fit into a thimble. Each has one stamen, one pistil and a lovely but tiny bloom. God designed it almost microscopically.
In the same way, the same God who flung the galaxies through the vastness of space also formed the tiny atom with its protons, neutrons and electrons. To Him, no problem is large because He is all powerful; and no problem is small because He is all loving.
In Zechariah 4:10, the exiles who returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple were disheartened because it seemed small and plain compared to the original temple of Solomon, which had been destroyed. But the Lord warned them against despising “the day of small things.” Their work wasn’t small to God, nor was the significance of what they were doing.
If you feel your life is small, and your work and influence is insignificant, remember that God delights in small things, and the word all in 1 Peter 5:7 includes His concerns about the small problems that vex us.
After all, small problems can add just enough weight to our hearts to cause a major collapse. Imagine coming home from cancer treatment and getting a flat tire. By itself, a flat isn’t a life-altering event. But if it occurs when we’re already worried, exhausted and spent, it’s like the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Small problems can also grow into bigger ones. It’s like the crack in your windshield after a piece of gravel hits it. At first, you hardly notice the little spot. But unattended, it soon spreads like a spider’s web across the glass.
That’s one reason God wants to help us with the smaller concerns of life. They add weight to our hearts and, if unattended, they can grow into bigger issues quickly.
A writer of yesteryear wrote in an old devotional book, “How many of what may be called the small things of this life we are anxious about, while the great concerns we leave with God! Now, why can we not commit ourselves into His hands for the small as well as the great? Let us not forget that He rules the atom as well as the world, that He feeds the humming-bird as well as the eagle, that He provides the crust as well as the feast, that He numbers the hairs of your head as well as the stars of the firmament. Shall He uphold all things, and not uphold you?”
As we learn to trust God for smaller things, we’ll learn to trust Him with larger issues. Bill Bright said, “As we learn to trust God in small things, our faith grows until we are able to trust Him in greater things.”
So cast all your cares on Him, because there is no one else who can truly handle them all, big and small. {eoa}
Dr. David Jeremiah is among the best-known Christian leaders in the world. He serves as senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California, and is the founder and host of Turning Point. Turning Point’s 30-minute radio program is heard on more than 2,200 radio stations daily. A New York Times bestselling author and Gold Medallion winner, he has written more than 50 books.
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