Our text for this lesson is one of the greatest pieces of advice, and one of the greatest promises,
"Cast all your care upon Him for he cares for you"
Three other Bible texts help us to better understand that God does care about us, and that we can
Matt 10:29-31
"Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground forgotten by your Father. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore do not fear
Here Jesus helps us to understand not only the infinite knowledge of God, but his infinite concern. God cares for a tiny sparrow. He cares very much more for you
Matt 6:24-34
"Do not be anxious saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What clothes shall we wear?' ...Your heavenly Father knows you need these things. But seek first his kingdom
and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you"
Here Jesus assures us that God's concern for us is not limited to caring about our souls. He cares about our physical bodies as well. He knows our every need. He knows that the needs of the soul are more important than the needs of the body. Yet he also understands that the needs of the body are legitimate, and he takes responsibility for them. He wants us to put his kingdom first and to worry less about our material needs, because he is able to provide them. God is concerned to ensure that there is always some way or other by which we can obtain what we need to live. At times it may be meagre, not as much as we could do with. At times it may be abundant, much more than we want or need
1Jn 5:14-15
"If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us ...we know that in whatever we ask, we have the requests which we have asked from him"
This does not say that God will immediately grant every and any request we make. That would be silly, because we could all ask God for a million dollars and immediately go and find it in our bank accounts. We know that
John assures us that God grants anything we ask that is "according to his will". Of course, if our requests are not according to God's will, then they won't be granted. We know that it is God's will to provide us with our needs. Therefore we pray, for example, "Give us this day our daily bread"