Corny but true

There’s a chorus I remember singing in youth group meetings, about casting your burdens on Jesus. The chorus repeated, “Higher, higher, higher,” “Lower, lower,” “Wider, wider,” or “Super, super.” It was about how we should raise Jesus higher, put Satan lower, that His love is wider, and that He has super power. It was a fun song with hand motions and a Caribbean beat, but it didn't do much for my faith at all. The happy-go-lucky message basically said: “The Christian life is effortless, just throw away your cares and His “super, super” goodness will make everything okay.” Since I didn't see that working out for anyone I knew, I dismissed this song as meaningless fluff. I also dismissed the powerful verse that it refers to as well. It took me years to realize how much I needed to live that verse out every single day.

Casting your cares on the Lord is not being happy-go-lucky. It’s a form of warfare against the lies of the devil. It’s focused, determined and a little scary. Happiness does factor in once we obey this command, a happiness straight from the throne of God. But the obedience part requires courage because it’s a direct attack on the logic of the spirit of this world. 

I have infuriated plenty of people when I determine against all hope that God will answer when we pray. They feel angry that I'm toying with their emotions and giving them false hope, but that’s because they didn't understand the immediate effect of binding up demonic forces and commanding them to leave. Trusting in God and casting your burdens on Him works when you are trusting in the authority that Jesus gives His disciples (that’s us) over the kingdom of the devil.  

One woman’s marriage was falling apart, and her husband had decided that divorce was their only option. She came to us desperate and ready to repent, change, and be taught how to undo the damage of her past. She let us pray for her and we commanded the demonic thoughts working in both of them to be cast out, the curses on their marriage and the pain that the devil was planning to inflict on them that week to be destroyed. To her great surprise, her husband walked in the door within the hour with a totally different attitude. He had no idea about our prayer, but God had impressed on him a sudden desire to forgive and work at changing himself as well. If we had counseled her with the traditional religious lingo we used to hear all our lives, patting her on the back, handing her Kleenexes as she cried, encouraging her to “cast her burdens on the Lord,” without showing her how to do it, she may very well be divorced today. 

Attempting to trust God without battling the lies of the devil is a passive kind of faith that sets you up for disappointment. It’s no longer faith at work, but just wishful thinking that He'll effortlessly remove your problems. The devil loves passivity, because he can swoop in, blow your problems up in your face, then point at God and say, “See? He doesn't care! He’s a liar!” But when you use your authority over evil, you can quiet your soul and rest because God is dealing with those burdens and you will see the results. 

If you've been living a passive and uncertain faith, you may be teetering on the brink of losing your faith completely. Learn how to build an unshakeable certainty of God’s promises. There’s nothing in the word of God that should be dismissed… even if a corny song is attached to it.    

Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.  (Psalm 55:22 HCSB)