1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
One of my favorite and most admired men of faith is a man named George Mueller. George Mueller (1805-1898) did many great works for the Lord in his lifetime, among them building several orphanages.
The following is a great story he tells:
It was time for breakfast at of one of my orphanages in England and there was no food. Not only was there no food in the kitchen, but there was no money in the home's account. A young girl whose father was a close friend of mine was visiting the home. I took her hand and said, "Come and see what our Father will do." In the dining room, long tables were set with empty plates and empty mugs. We sat down at the table with the others and and I prayed, "Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat."
At once, we heard a knock at the door. There stood the local baker. "Mr. Muller," he said, "I couldn't sleep last night. Somehow, I felt you had no bread for breakfast, so I got up at 2 o'clock this morning and baked you some fresh bread. Here it is." Muller thanked him and gave praise to God. Soon afterward, a second knock came. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. There was no way to move and repair the cart except to empty it of the milk he needed to still deliver so he asked me if we could use his milk. We had a wonderful breakfast that morning.
Faith was the pinnacle of George Muller's life. Without a personal salary, he relied only on God to supply the money and food he needed to support the hundreds of homeless children he befriended in the name of Messiah. A man of radiant faith, he kept a motto on his desk for many years that brought comfort, strength, and uplifting confidence to his heart. It read, 'It matters to Him about you.' Mueller believed that those words captured the meaning of 1 Peter 5:7, and he rested his claim for divine help on that truth. He testified at the end of his life that the Lord had never failed to supply all his needs.
Remember that God is concerned with our every need! Cast your cares upon Him today.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Jonah now acknowledges that God put him where he is, and he accepts His discipline. “Sheol” is the “grave”, the “pit” or the “abode of the dead”. Did Jonah die, or was he only nearly dead from three days of fish stomach acid, and little or no air? The text doesn’t say; only that if he didn’t actually leave his body, he came as close as a man can get to it; three days worth. In this nebulous and miserable place Jonah cried out, probably from the deepest depths of his agonized soul…he cried out to the Lord.
While most read the story of Jonah focusing on Jonah’s journey, I want to pause and examine the lives of the pagan sailors. What a journey they were on! We see the hand of God touching them providentially through Jonah’s disobedience. Talk about God bringing good from evil.
So the captain came to Jonah, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.” At this point the captain (who probably worshiped Baal and Yamm, god of the sea) has more faith than Jonah.
It must have been a bad storm. These men were experienced, hardened sailors who had seen it all at sea. If they were scared, this could have been the first “perfect storm” since Noah’s flood. So they started the first interfaith prayer meeting in the Bible, each man crying out to his own god. As the ship groaned and creaked in howling wind and massive waves, and the men threw cargo overboard in a desperate attempt to save it, where was Jonah? On deck helping them? Confidently praying to His own God? Shaking with fear and paralyzed with deep conviction? No, he’s taking a nap down below…
For the next week or so we’ll be looking closely at the life of Jonah the prophet. Jonah was told to “preach against the city of Nineveh”, that was in the ancient kingdom of Assyria. Nineveh was a major city on the banks of the Tigris River about 500 miles north and east of where Jonah was; located on a contemporary map in modern Iraq, about 300 miles north of Baghdad. Archaeologists have found the ruins of ancient Nineveh right outside the Iraqi city of Mosul. Yes, the same Mosul that was taken last week by jihadists!
So Jonah goes and begins to preach in this pagan city. His message is very simple. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown”(v. 4). That’s it. That was his whole message. It’s eight words in English; only 4 words in Hebrew.
Abraham was sitting in front of his tent on the plains of Mamre, when the LORD (Yehovah — Yud Hay Vav Hay) came to him and declared the fulfillment of a promise He had made to him many years before, saying that through Abraham’s seed the world would be blessed! (Genesis 12:7; 13:15-16, 15:18, 17:7-9)