“…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
If you didn’t care about baseball, it wouldn’t matter to you who won the World Series. There are those who DO care about who wins or loses though, whether they are ardent fans, or those who place wagers on the games. They have what is called a vested interest in the outcome.
Likewise, many of us also go about life with our own vested interests that occupy our mental and emotional lives. If you take a quick inventory of your thought life during any given day, you’ll find you may have been very busy taxing your mental and emotional life. It’s no wonder people are so stressed out, tired, worried and feeling some intense pressures.
There are things that we do care about, and those are the areas where the enemy likes to pressure us. The enemy loves to see Christians under pressure because it carries every negative, self-destructive mind-set with it and dominates believers with fear. Pressures are from the enemy, and they are a major weapon in his toolbox. The term under pressure is accurate because pressure is designed to bring us under the enemy’s dominion.
Pressures are designed to cause us to react exactly opposite of the way that Jesus tells us to. Pressures seek to paralyze our faith, influence bad decisions, and create negative momentum. But how many of life’s pressures are solved by worrying, fretting, losing sleep, and stewing about what might happen?
Casting all your care
The above verse tells us exactly what to do with our anxieties, worries and fears, all of which are CARES! It says to cast them upon Jesus! Let’s look at the word casting. It’s the Greek word, epiripto. It means to hurl, cast, or throw, and it implies to throw violently. The only other place it’s used in the New Testament is in Luke 19:35, when they cast their garments upon the colt and set Jesus on it.
Instead of inviting in, and entertaining the pressures, worries and cares into your life each day, wouldn’t it be more profitable to HURL them, THROW them, and CAST them violently away from you and commit them to the One who is strong enough to carry them for you? We are not designed to carry burdens of worry and anxiety. We may do it for a while, but eventually the load will erode our nervous system, our immune system and we’ll begin to break down.
Since we have this picture of the multitudes casting their garments on the colt for Jesus to ride on, let’s take off those old coats of the pressures and anxieties of life, and let’s put a stop to the inroads of the enemy. Let’s allow Jesus to ride into our lives with His peace once and for all. Casting all your cares upon Him and let Him care for you!
With Love,
Pastor Tom