Casting Your Anxieties on Him

The command and need for constant casting

A meditation on 1 Peter 5:6-7

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God

so that at the proper time he may exalt you,

casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

Perhaps like me you love the command and promise found in the verse above. And perhaps like me you struggle to do what it says and to find the peace and joy that is promised when we place our anxieties in God’s hands (Philippians 4:6-7). The great danger that occurs when we seek to do what God’s Word says and do not appear to receive the blessing promised, is that we can begin to subtly think—deep in our hearts, for we would never say it out loud—that His Word is not really true, at least not for me. Maybe God’s Word is true for the big things like salvation and eternal life, but in the practical day to day things we have to muddle through on our own doing the best we can. Yet we know that if God’s Word cannot be trusted in the small things then we can’t be sure it can be trusted in the big things. Much is at stake in seeing and knowing and experiencing the truth of all of God’s promises.

So it is with the promise above. Will God really bear our cares and anxieties so that they do not weigh us down moment by moment? My whole problem with this command was that I did not really understand it. I would have some cares or anxieties, and I would call to mind this verse. Then I would go to God in prayer and ask Him to take these cares and to bear them for me. Then five minutes later I would be weighed down by the same concerns. What happened? Did God not take them? Did I not really cast them upon Him? Why was I still overcome with the same anxieties?

Here is what God finally enabled me to see. The command to cast our anxieties upon the Lord is not a one-time command, it is a continual command.¹ We must cast our cares upon Him and continue to cast them again and again as long as they continue to weigh us down. I had always thought of this command as something that we do once with each concern. Cast it upon Him, and, He will take it, and now I’m done. But the command is for constant casting of the same anxiety.

One way to think about this command is to picture yourself in a boat far from shore, and you discover that there is a leak, and the boat is beginning to fill with water. You wonder what to do and call out to a friend on shore. He yells back, “Grab the bucket under your seat and bail out the water and all will be well.”

You get the bucket and bail and bail and sure enough the water level drops and all is well. But then you notice the boat is filling up again. Frustrated you yell to your friend, “You lied to me! You said if I bailed all will be well, but now the boat is filling again!”

Your friend shouts, “I meant bail and keep on bailing as long as the boat is filling with water. Not just bail it one time!”

So it is with God’s command to cast our anxieties on Him. If you are worried about a situation with a family member or your finances or anything else then you are to cast that anxiety upon God. Then five minutes later when that same anxiety arises once more, cast it upon Him again. If the same anxiety seizes your heart fifty times a day then cast it upon God fifty times that day. Keep calling upon Him.² Keep trusting in Him. Keep looking to Him. Keep giving Him your cares. You can do this because if you are His child you know that He cares for you, He will never forsake you. He will bear your burden. And bear it much better than you will.

If you will notice casting our cares on God is connected with humbling ourselves before Him. It is pride that more often than not keeps us from giving God our concerns. We mull them over in our minds; go over different scenarios; think about what we can do or say. In other words in our pride, we keep our anxieties in our control, trusting in ourselves to work them out, when God says to give them to Him and let Him work (Isaiah 64:4; 2 Chronicles 16:9).

For the child of God, afflictions, trials and anxieties are truly a blessing, for they keep us ever dependent on our heavenly Father, turning to Him again and again. And the result? God “gives grace to the humble” (I Peter 5:5b). Grace to walk in love in spite of trial. Grace to be concerned about the needs others instead of our needs. Grace to shine forth the faithfulness and hope to be found in God alone. Grace not to be weighed down but lifted up. Grace to depend on God for all things. Grace abounding!

Fuller blessing always comes through deeper trials when we humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand. Keep turning to Him. Keep crying out to Him. Keep casting your cares on Him—even the same care over and over. See if you do not find that I Peter 5:6-7 is true, gloriously true! He will uphold you with His mighty right hand, and He will give you grace beyond what you could ever ask or imagine. His Word is true. And it is true for you in the big things and in the small.

Yours in an Ever-Present Savior,

James

1. The verb “casting” epiriyantes is an aorist participle whose tense is controlled by the context. In this passage “casting our anxieties” is clearly a way that we humble ourselves before God. The humbling that Peter calls for is not just a one time or past event. It is to be continual. See D.A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies, pp. 69-75. The NIV misses the mark when it starts a new sentence with verse 7. Peter continues the command of verse 6 (“Humble yourselves”) with a participial phrase telling how this is to be done.

2. Perhaps this helps to see why Paul’s command to “pray without ceasing” (I Thess 5:17) is not unreasonable at all. Praying unceasingly is not meant to be a burden, but a way to become unburdened.

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