One of the sad effects of the fall of man has been that it has destroyed confidence in God. When one becomes a child of God by faith in His Word, one of the great lessons to be learned is to trust the care of God. The world does not trust Him; it fears, and is hostile to Him. The believer has God's promises, has "the Word of his grace," has the goodness of God made known in His Word, but many times it takes years to learn to "cast all our care upon Him." Peter's epistle is for the whole Church of Christ, not alone to the few to whom it is actually addressed. He is writing for God to the Church of God. It is really written to the strangers scattered throughout the world, the strangers and pilgrims referred to in 1 Pet. 2:11, all such that were then on earth, and all that have ever been such since, and that are such now. That is one of the wonders of the Word of God; it is for all the people of God in all places, for all the time that the Church is here. What will be the place of the Scriptures after the Church is removed, we may not know, but from Matt. 5:17,18 and Mark 13:31 we may be sure that so long as there is a people of God upon earth, His Word will be to them a revelation of His grace.

It is a great source of strength to us to know much of God's care for His people. While it could not be proclaimed in its fulness until Christ had come, there are many revelations of it in the Old Testament. God was all along making Himself known in His relations to His people, and this always included His care for them. This being true of His earthly people, how much more must it be of the heavenly people, who have the promises and revelations of the New Testament. "He careth for you."

How minute this care of God is we may learn from Matt. 10:29-31:"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows." This reveals the care of God for little things. A farthing was a coin less in value than half-a-cent. The hairs of one's head are of very great value altogether, though human beings could never spend time to number them; God, however, knows their number. These words show the wonderful wisdom everywhere displayed in Scripture. There are many minute things in our bodies, but we do not know them as we do the hairs of our heads. It shows that God's care is infinite. Nothing escapes it. Nothing is too little for His notice, nor is anything too great. Whatever cares the child of God has are God's cares, too. When you consider that my care is His care, it gives such matters a very different aspect. Is anything a care to you? Then it is a care to Him. You can pray about it in the greatest faith that He hears and does what is best for you.

Is it care for things? "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Is it people troubling us? "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Can you think of anything or of any one that can harm you with God caring for you?

He has a very imperfect and unscriptural view of God who imagines He is not able to keep His promises. Nor does His keeping them depend upon our faith, or understanding, or anything in us. It is what Christ has done for us that makes us precious in His sight. Those who have believed in Christ as their Saviour are "in Him," that is, they are so united to Christ by faith in Him that they stand before God in an entirely new relationship as children of God, "Ye are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:26). If you have received Christ as your Saviour, then this wonderful care of God for His children should be a part of your everyday experience. If you have not cast all your care upon Him, if there is some care great or small that you are burdened with, then there is something good before you, that is, the experience of casting all your care upon Him. You are not to pick out some cares to cast on Him and some to burden yourself with, but cast them all on Him.

If you have not done this already, then do so now, and you will know more fully what Christ meant when He said, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). One of the vices of the world is restlessness, the sea being its type:"The wicked [lawless] are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God to the wicked" (Isa. 57:20, 21), In the new earth there will be no more sea, either of barren waters or of the restlessness of the wicked (Rev. 21:1). But every child of God who lives with the eyes of the heart open lives in (what is to such an one) a new earth. One whose care is all committed to God, from whom the "weariness of life" is gone, is living in a very different earth from the one who minds only earthly things. Though a pilgrim passing through the world, yet the world belongs to the believer in a very real way, a way which the "dweller on earth" knows nothing of.

The child of God has his heart and mind set on Christ and what He has promised. The man of the earth is getting his all here and now. There will be no pleasures in eternity for him, no money to make, no business deals to carry through. What the child of God has of this world he knows is the gift of his heavenly Father, and he praises Him for what is given, be it much or little. Such an one gets vastly more out of the world than the one whose all is here. The believer is praising the Lord for the earthly blessings bestowed; he enjoys them as the gifts of God. Then he knows that, when this life is done, there is to be the eternal enjoyment of the inheritance which God has for Him. The one who has faith in Christ knows that he has all of this world that is best for him, and that there is a blessed, glorious eternity before him. The religious systems of man, no matter by what names they are called, know nothing of this wonderful salvation of God which makes Christ our all for this life and that which is to come. J. W. Newton