My heart has been so heavy these past few days. So many losses, so much pain. Some public, some personal. So much to pray about. At times I have not even known what to say. I have asked God to comfort those who are grieving. I have asked Him to sustain those who are hurting, to provide what is needed physically, emotionally, spiritually. I have prayed that He would reveal Himself through these many circumstances and draw people to Himself. I have asked Him to open blind eyes that they might see the beauty of Christ and His salvation.
And then I have run out of words. I simply do not know what to ask Him, what to pray, what might be helpful, what is needed. In those times, His Spirit has gently spoken two different passages that I wish to share with you. Maybe they will minister to you as they did to me.
God issues us a precious invitation in I Peter 5:7 - “Casting all your care upon Him, because He cares for you.” This might be a familiar phrase to you and in its familiarity, we might skip over how precious it is. How poignant and how very priceless. Indeed we can cast all our worries, anxieties, cares and hurts onto Him for the very reason that is stated : He cares for us. He cares! He is not distant or indifferent or callous.He is not like a customer service agent on the phone to whom our issues truly do not matter. He is not like an acquaintance who is not really listening but rather is waiting for their chance to speak. He is not like a friend who grows weary of our problems. He cares. Our hurts matter to Him. Our concerns are important to Him. Our needs are not insignificant to Him. He cares. More deeply than we can possibly know. More than anyone else ever will.
The truth of this verse comforted me. As I prayed for these recent hurts and losses, I was so encouraged in knowing that He cares. He cares for me as I feel helpless to mend these hurts and He cares for the ones I am praying for. He cares. That matters.
The other Scripture that ministered to my soul was a phrase my pastor mentioned in a recent sermon on prayer. It comes from Matthew 6, just before Jesus gave us a prayer to model our own praying after. The last few words of Matthew 6:8 - “for your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him.” In my helpless state, as I ran out of words and told the Lord that I didn’t even know what to pray for these folks, His Spirit spoke this verse to me and reminded me that I am not the key to answered prayer. My knowledge of what is needed is not critical to Him. He already knows what they need. He is just waiting for me to join Him in what He is doing for them, by bringing them to Him in prayer. By believing that He cares and that He answers and that He is able. I don’t need to use a lot of words. I don’t need to have special insight. I don’t need to know details of what is needed because He already knows. I just need to know that HE is needed in these situations. I just need to ask Him to do what He knows to do. To provide what He knows is needed. To be Who He is in their lives. It’s perfectly fine that I don’t know what they need because He already does. And He not only knows, He is able to meet those needs. He is the only One Who can.
He cares. He knows. He is able. Be encouraged. Don’t stop praying - this is our opportunity to participate in what He wants to do for those He loves.