September 10

Anxious care forbidden

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6).
“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding” (Isa. 40:28).

The command, “Be careful for nothing,” is unlimited, and so is the expression, “casting all your care upon him.” If we cast our burdens upon another, can they continue to press upon us? If we bring them away with us from the throne of grace, it is evident that we do not leave them there.
With respect to myself, I have made this one test of my prayers. If, after committing anything to God, I can, like Hannah, come away and have my countenance no more sad, my heart no more pained or anxious, I look upon it as one proof that I prayed in faith. But if I bring away my burden, I conclude that faith was not in exercise.
—Edward Payson.

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