HOW TO CAST YOUR CARES ON THE LORD.

God is always speaking. Are we listening?

A Jewish friend of mine mentioned to me that she was considering learning how to meditate which would require learning to empty her mind. I woke up the next morning with all this going through my mind as it often does when an article is being downloaded to me from the Lord.  I thought it might be helpful to some others. So here goes. 

The Jewish and therefore biblical way of meditating is never to empty your mind which we cannot really do anyway – our minds were not meant for emptying but for being wise, for having discernment, for “knowing” what is right and what is not, what is godly from what is not.  There’s so much good stuff to be meditated upon in the bible God has given to us that emptying our minds doesn’t seem like fun at all. Besides, He wants us to hear what He would say to us. Time and time again He told Israel to heed His voice. In fact, the Sh'ma, one of the most familiar prayers in all of Judaism begins,"Hear O Israel...." which translates into listen and understand what I'm saying, says the Lord.

I woke up this morning to the verse that says,“Be still and know that I am God” going through my mind.  When things come to me like that I know it is God informing me of something meaningful.  The more I thought about this verse (I meditated on it), the more I felt myself becoming calm, and being still. Why? Because I can put all things into His hands and trust that God has His eyes upon me and is watching over me  and will give me wisdom for all things as I look to Him for it.  Another verse says, “Cease striving and know that I am God.”  Well, doesn’t that just put being still in perspective. Being still means to stop striving which we can do because God is in His place of sovereign and loving authority. 

I thought of where there might be areas in my life where I’m still striving, though surely not the way I used to before I knew God as I do. Take worrying, for instance. Worry is a kind of striving, though a useless one. Unlike just thinking something through, worrying carries stress. It’s a mental exertion to try to make things work out differently, to try to solve a conflict by rehearsing it over and over in your mind though your thoughts only go in circles and don’t come to rest or a new conclusion. 

So when I realize I’m worrying, I bring my worrying thoughts to God, ask Him for wisdom about it, and leave it in His hands.  There sure is a whole lot less stress when God is in on it with you and the weight of the matter is on Him and not me.  I remain quiet in my innermost being, in my kishkahs, as I turn each concern over to Him and receive His peace, expecting that He will give me the wisdom to know what to do or He will take care of it Himself.  Often the situation ceases to have great importance when I give it over to Him and I don’t have to do anything because God Himself has actually seen to it that it is resolved, just because I trusted Him with it. The problem dissipates once I put it in His hands and trust that He’ll fix it or fix me.  

As we read through the Bible we find that the greatest thing God asks from us is faith, that is, our trust in Him and His goodness.  That’s why the Bible says, “Cast your cares upon Him for He cares for you.”  That word cast means to release them to him the way you would release a bowling ball into an bowling alley.  Release the things and send them rolling off to Him. Scripture says, “You have not because you ask not.”  So ask!  This too is a kind of meditating, seeing your concerns in God’s very able hands and the weight lifted off of you. Whether it’s a sick child, someone making seemingly unwise decisions, or the state of the world, God will carry the weight if we’ll let Him.  He says, “My burdens are light and My yoke is easy,” meaning whatever He allows in our lives will not be too heavy a burden if we let Him carry the weight of them.  Once we meditate on that reality it becomes a part of our consciousness and way of life.  Now that’s productive meditating as God meant it to be. Emptying your mind has nothing productive or strengthening about it. 

I once spent a whole interesting summer “meditating” on when God blessed people and when He didn’t. I wanted to know how to stay in God’s blessings and how to avoid not being on His good side, for lack of better words.  I went through the books of Psalms and Isaiah, one of Israel’s major prophets.  I made a kind of chart with 4 columns:  Blessings and the cause; Curses (the opposite of blessings) and the cause.  Sort of like positive and negative cause and effect.  

For example, like in Psalm 1:1, it says, to begin with, people are blessed who do not seek or take seriously the advice or opinions of those who don’t think like God thinks. It says “wicked” in one translation, another translation of that word wicked is “ungodly.”  Either way, not godlike. I ask myself where am I taking advice that is not what God would be saying. I think of all the news commentators who report all kinds of awful things that don’t come from God and don’t bring me His peace, and also who speak against Israel. Surely that’s not godly. They never talk about what God’s doing or His promises to take care of Israel, or that He loves her and says that land is His land which He gave to Israel. The news commentators may not be ‘wicked’ but their opinions are not what God is saying.   

There is so much crazy stuff going on in the world today, but Scripture says to “focus your thoughts on what is true, noble, righteous, pure, lovable or admirable, on some virtue or on something praiseworthy…. Then the God who gives shalom will be with you.”  There’s enough to meditate on for quite a while in just those words. We can opt out of fear and worry.

I want blessings so I should not take too seriously the advice or opinions of those who do not know or are not speaking from a knowledge of God.  The Psalm goes on to say to avoid those who are “scoffers” (who speak against others, to mock them or speak derisively). There are a lot of voices ‘out there’ who speak negatively about people who in their own opinions are not worthy of respect or honor. God never does that. Even when He rebuked Israel for her backslidden ways through the prophets, He did so with encouragement to be all He wants her to be. God never beats us down, He always reaches for us to lift us up. 

To try and empty your mind is mysticism and, quite frankly, it opens you up to what is not godly. Hinduism seeks to empty your mind and that’s surely not Jewish. The Jewish and biblical way of meditating is to roll a thought over and over in your mind, and in fact, to say it out loud as you think about it.  Isaac meditated, but he surely wasn’t emptying his mind.  He was thinking with God about all going on in his life, about his new wife coming.  It says, “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening; and he lifted his eyes and looked, and there, the camels were coming” (Genesis 24:63 – though some translations leave out the meditation part). How exciting. Just as he was talking with God about the promise of a wife, there she was, coming with the camels!  

God spoke to Joshua as he was about to finally lead Israel into the promised land with these words that were not just for Joshua but for every Jew and follower of God:  “This book of the law (Torah) shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success” (Joshua 1:8). Here is your foundational instructions from God about meditating – to ponder, to consider, to dwell on what the Bible says, to make God’s words our reality. Torah can mean the whole bible and not just the first five books because the prophets are all about trying to get Israel to observe Torah, for instance.  

So you can see that God does not want us to empty our minds.  That is not a godly way to seek peace. His word is our way to peace. When we know what He has promised – and the Bible is filled with His promises – then we can put our trust in Him, regardless of what circumstances may look like.  A good example is His promise that the land of Israel is ours, and there is much that He has said that is recorded in the bible about what’s going on in the world today, especially about Israel that will help us understand that He is still in control even when the world seems to be going crazy. We need to not be empty of thoughts, but to keep our thoughts on what He gave us in the Bible and firmly trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for He alone is wholly trustworthy, both for us personally and regarding Israel. In fact, regarding the whole world for, “the earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it” (Psalm 24:1). 

As King David said in Psalm 48:10, “God, … we meditate on your grace.” Grace means the goodness of God on our behalf so meditate (think) on all that He has given to you in your life: health, sound mindedness, provision, protection, loved ones, beauty, comfort, eyes to see and ears to hear.  There is much joy in being thankful to “God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.” There’s enough to meditate on right there, to come to a new realization of how blessed we are, and to thank Him for what we may have taken for granted before. A thankful life is a full life. 

Psalm 119 has much to say about meditation. It is the longest Psalm and talks about meditation at least seven times, including:  “I have more understanding than all my teachers, because I meditate on your instruction.”  Now there’s a good reason to meditate.  To be a person of wisdom, seek His instructions for life in His Word.  They are many other mentions of mediation in the bible and all have to do with giving much thought to what God has to say, but never about emptying our minds.  That would entail a constant striving to empty your mind and a waste of time. It might be good for Madonna, but not for those of us who know we have so much else in God available to us. Heneni, Lord, We're listening!!