Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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Who do you run to when you’re exhausted and tired? Why do you run to them?

I remember when my older brother was about 7 years old, he stepped on a bees nest and was stung by over 300 bees. He ran straight for mom. He knew she would take care of him. She’d make it all better. Who we run to when we’re burdened clearly shows a great deal about our heart. I hope to impress on all of you the importance of running to Jesus.

“Cast all your cares upon Him, because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

We turn to many things when life doesn’t go the way we want. Many people turn to family and friends. Many people kind of retreat from life (sleep, watch movies, read books). Others often turn to harmful behaviors (drugs, cutting, watching Oprah). I often turn to ice cream. The Scripture tells us to turn to Christ.

We need to turn to Christ because only He is truly able to handle all our burdens. God is infinitely wise, infinitely strong, infinitely loving, and this God invites us to allow Him to handle all our cares. But I don’t want to imply that God will handle our worries the way we want Him to. He’ll handle them better than the way we want Him to! When we bring our worries to God, we need to trust that He will handle them according to His wisdom. Otherwise, why take your cares to God at all?

We need to take our cares to God because He is infinitely wise, and we’re not. You will never tell God something that will surprise him and make his jaw drop. You will never tell him something so horrible that he can’t forgive you. You will never tell him a problem so big he can’t help you. As I said, God is infinitely strong. Have you ever heard someone ask, “Can God make a rock so big that He can’t lift it?” The way I would answer that question is, “Yes, He can, but then He would lift it!”

Not only is God infinitely wise and infinitely strong, but He is also infinitely loving. I’m going to talk more about this point tomorrow night. He loves you so much that He did what only He could do: made it possible for your sins to be forgiven. If you trust in Jesus, God has already solved your greatest need: salvation. If God did that, don’t you think He also cares enough about you to handle the worries you have in life? I think He does. More importantly, Jesus thinks He does, too (Matthew 6:25-34).

So how do we do this? How do we make sure we’re running to Jesus? As we learned last night, we pray, be thankful, and trust in God. I don’t want to imply for an instant that you should never share your worries with family and friends. You absolutely should. But realize that the comfort and support you receive from them will only be good comfort and support to the degree that you and they lean upon Jesus.

When I was in high school I was on the cross country running team. In training to run the 3.1 mile races, we’d often run up to 6 miles after school so that that 3.1 miles didn’t seem so bad. The coach would usually give us directions to run a certain route around town, then we’d end up back at school. Well, one day I wasn’t as familiar with the route and didn’t take a turn I was supposed to take, and ended up running 2 or 3 miles out of the way. Once I realized what I had done, I had to turn around, run back to where I missed the turn, and finish the route I was actually supposed to run. At one point, I even saw my mom drive by me, and I tried to run to catch up with her, yelling for her to turn around and pick me up, thinking that she could pick me up and drive me back. But no, I had to finish the 10 to 12 mile run on my own that day, all because I made a big mistake. Sometimes you’ll have to pay the consequences for your mistakes. But even when that happens, run to Jesus, and He will always be there with you.

Jesus truly is the answer. Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Jesus told us His purpose in coming was that “we might have life, and have it to the fullest” (John 10:10). Having full, abundant, joyful life doesn’t mean we’ll never have problems. But it does mean that in the midst of our problems, we’ll have hope.