“Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:6, 76Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6‑7).) This is true heart’s ease, and our God would graciously give it to us at all times. It matters not what our condition may be, it is our privilege to enjoy heart’s ease, inasmuch as we are called to cast our every care upon One who is as willing as He is able, and as able as He is willing, to bear it for us. “Cast thy burden on the Lord.” What then? Is it, “He will remove it?” Nay; but “He will sustain thee.” This is far better. The heart may often long to have the “burden” removed altogether; but it is infinitely more gracious of the Lord to sustain us. This latter is the true secret of “Heart’s Ease.” It brings us into closer contact — deeper intimacy with the Lord, and this is just what we want. He, in His tender love, desires to make a most blessed exchange with us; He takes our care, and gives us His peace. What an exchange! He would not have a single care upon our hearts. He would fain have our hearts as free from care as our consciences are free from guilt. He has given us righteousness instead of guilt, and He would give us peace instead of care.
How gracious of God thus to occupy Himself about us! He occupies Himself about our very failures and follies, in order to deliver us from them; and He occupies Himself about our anxieties, in order to relieve us of them, and fill our hearts with His own ineffable peace. He positively says to us, in language as plain as language can be, “Give me your care, whatever it is, little or great, it matters not, personal, domestic, commercial, or whatever else it be, just give it to me, and I will, assuredly, give you instead, my peace which passeth all understanding.” Precious grace! May there be a full response on our part thereto. Why should we keep our cares when God wants to have them? Why should we be careful about ourselves, when God is caring for us? He is ever thinking of us. He has deigned to count the very hairs of our heads. Could care be possibly more minute or tender? Could knowledge be possibly more intimate?
And what is the issue of all this? To what does it lead? Are our hearts thus freed from every care, left without occupation or object? No; blessed be God, His exchange reaches higher still. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have both learned and received, and heard, and seen in me, do, and the God of peace shall be with you.”
Here is the blessed issue to which the Holy Ghost conducts our souls. He introduces us to “the God of peace.” Having freed our hearts from every care, and given us His own peace, He presents Himself as the object to be enjoyed by our tranquillized hearts. In other words, instead of care, we have peace; and instead of self, we have God, It is of all-importance for the Christian to remember that he is brought to God now. He has not to wait till he gets to heaven to enjoy God, he can enjoy Him now. “Christ hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” We are as fully brought to God now, so far as title is concerned, as ever we shall be. Christ died to put away our sin; He lives to take away our care, and it is our privilege, with a conscience free from guilt and a heart free from care, to delight in God Himself. This is heart’s ease.
“Lord, what a change within us one short hour
Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make,
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take,
What parched grounds refresh, as with a shower!
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower:
We rise, and all, the distant and the near,
Stands forth in sunny outline, bright and clear;
We kneel, how weak, we rise, so full of power.
Why therefore should we do ourselves this wrong,
Or others — that we are not always strong,
That we are ever overborne with care,
That we should ever weak or heartless be,
Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer,
And joy, and strength, and courage, are with thee?”