Casting Our Cares

“Cast ALL your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 
1 Peter 5:7

The Bible instructs us to cast our cares and anxieties on the Lord. When we do this, we can be confident that we are handing our deepest worries over to someone who will handle them with special regard. God cares about our anxieties. He takes those things we are struggling with and then He handles our hearts with tenderness. I don't know about you, but I do not want to hand over my anxieties to someone who could care less about me or my troubles. I would much rather hand over my anxieties and worries to someone who loves me and who is concerned with helping me get through them, all while ministering to my heart with healing. It is our responsibility to give them to the Lord. This verse asks us to willingly give up our anxieties. God is not going to take them from us. He expects us to trust Him enough to give them up willingly to Him. There needs to be a degree of vulnerability in our relationship with the Lord in order for growth and ministry to take place in our hearts and lives.

Not Just Some, But ALL

The other part of this verse we need to take a look at is the one word I underlined. It is the word ALL. The Lord is not going to pick and choose from our list of worries only to select a few that He is willing to give us peace about. He is willing, and going to care for ALL of them, not just a select few. What a comforting thing to think about! We can go to God with ALL of our baggage and not worry that He is going to pigeon hole our hearts in the process. He cares for us!

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” 

Psalm 55:22

According to this verse in Psalms when we cast our cares upon the Lord He promises to sustain us. He promises that, if we are walking righteously, then we will not be shaken. Another copyright year of the NIV says that, "He will never let the righteous fall." I love that because there are going to be times that we have troubles in this lifetime that will seem insurmountable, but when we cast them on the Lord He will not allow those troubles to make us fall! We might stumble and stagger a bit and even trip ourselves up at times, but we will not fall to the point that we can not get back up dust ourselves off and go again! What a precious promise! It is so comforting to know that the Lord is watching out for our every step. However, we must do our part of casting our cares upon Him so that He can do his part of sustaining us and not allowing us to fall.

Don't Just Cast, Throw

The word cast in both of these verses means literally to throw or to fling. The image that pops into my mind is Lord kneeling in the catcher’s position with his glove ready and waiting as we are on the pitcher’s mound trying to muster up the courage to hurl our anxieties and worries at Him with all our might. God is already in position to catch our cares. He is simply waiting for us to fling our cares at Him so we can be free. The dilemma is not on God’s end, it’s on ours. We are the ones holding the ball. His glove is empty. I think there are many times we develop stage fright when we step up on that pitcher’s mound. We ask ourselves, “What is God going to think, or does He really even care that I am weighed down with all of this?” The answers to these questions are simple. As far as what He thinks, He loves us and He wants us to share our worries with Him. He does not want us to carry anything He has not put in our hands to carry. As far as God caring about us, the word has told us He cares for us, so we should be trusting Him at his word! It’s funny how this can sometimes be easier said then done.(To read more about trusting God at His word check out "Believe And Not Doubt".) Sometimes the greatest distance is not the distance between the pitcher’s mound and the catcher’s glove, it’s the distance between our heart and our mind. This can seem like an endless chasm between believing with our minds the things our heart already knows about the character of our loving father! We so often want to question instead of simply trusting that God is going to do what He says He will do.

There is a song I remember singing as a child called “I Cast All My Cares.” I have included the lyrics hopefully some of you will know this song. If not, feel free to look it up on Youtube. It is very fitting for our topic today. I love this song, because it is one that we can sing in the times when worries and anxiety seem to overtake us. When we sing this song we are reminding ourselves that we have a heavenly father who is right there ready to free us from ALL of our cares.

I will cast all my cares upon you

I lay all of my burdens down at your feet

And anytime I don’t know what to do

I will cast all my cares upon you

Lord help us to cast, throw, and fling our cares upon you. Thank you that you care so deeply for us that you do not desire for us to carry around weights that you have not put in our hands. Thank you that you desire for us to share our worries and anxieties with you. Thank you that you desire to be our catcher when we are on the pitcher’s mound. I pray that you give us the courage to let go of the ball of anxiety and worry that we sometimes cling to so tightly that our knuckles turn white and our chest starts to hurt under the pressure of these worries. I thank you that it is not your desire for us to feel this way. I thank you that it is your desire for us to be free, and to be filled with your love, joy and peace. Thank you for caring for us so deeply!