Evening, morning and noon
I cry out in distress,
and he hears my voice. (Psalm 55:17)

Living in our time, isn’t there something distressing every day ?

Sometimes we cry out because we have a chronic affliction like depression or battling persistent  headaches from Lyme disease or suffering from recurrent autoimmune attacks. But even if we don’t suffer from a lingering ailment, simply living in the 21^st century provides plenty that makes us groan.

As we face distress, we cry out in prayer to our Lord who hears our voice :

Cast your cares on the Lord
and he will sustain you;
he will never let
the righteous be shaken. (Psalm 55:22)

If I were in charge (which I’m not !) then once I cast my care in prayer, I would be mercifully freed from that care and not have to worry about it anymore. However, today’s Scripture  does not say that the Lord will quickly remove all our cares. No, the promise is that the Lord will sustain us even while we have them.

I face a new care in my own life : I have developed a heart rhythm  issue, so I  can’t run competitively any more. My plans had been to keep running competitively  year after year, limited only by the gradual decline based on aging. So it was a shocker to have such a sudden exit from being able to enjoy something I have done for decades. (But please do note: I am very thankful that at least I can still jog for a few miles !)

No, God never guaranteed I’d be able to compete against the top runners in my age group year after year.  Yet in the face of all that, God does provide a different and better guarantee! It’s a guarantee that  I will not be shaken.  My faith and security in Jesus will remain and won’t be shaken even if  I can’t ever compete again in this lifetime.

But what if I face another new challenging issue ?

Cast it on him.

I don’t know exactly what your stresses are. But my counsel from the Lord is

Cast it on him.

Guaranteed : As we pray, we see that no matter what happens, God loves us, cares for us, and sustains us. He will  not let our unity with Jesus be shaken.

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