“Casting all your cares on Him, for He cares about you.”
1 Peter 5:7 CSB
Perhaps, like me, you’ve been told, “leave your burdens at the cross” or “cast your cares on Jesus” or maybe “lay your heavy load at the throne of God.” Anybody else?
In one of many conversations with a troubled woman of faith, she told me that every time she prayed, she would lay her burdens at the cross. But she felt like she was getting nowhere – no answers to prayers and no resolution to problems. She felt that she was buckling under the weight of her burdens.
I asked her, “When you pray and lay your burdens at the foot of the cross, do you leave them there once you say ‘amen’?”
She looked at me with tears in her eyes, “What?”
I repeated, “You say you lay your burdens at the foot of the cross, but do you leave them there? Or do you pick them back up, put them in your pocket, and carry them way with you?”
She looked me straight in the eyes, “I put them in my pocket.”
Hmmm…
Two weeks ago, my sweet man convinced me to join him on his tandem fishing kayak. The small boat arrived mid-summer but each time he had previously asked me to go with him, I found multiple (valid?) reasons for why I could not – too hot, too cold, too sunny, too cloudy, too windy, rain-potential too high, too many outdoor allergies…just the beginning of excuses used.
With temperatures dropping and fall weather settling in, days in the “yak” are limited. Now I love my husband tremendously more than I dislike the discomforts of playing outside, so I agreed to accompany him on his fishing outing down the River Raisin in Dundee, Michigan.
The weather was perfect, the sky was beautiful, the setting was gorgeous, my allergies behaved, and I had a wonderful time with my most favorite person in the world.
I watched as he cast his line and began immediately reeling it back in. The goal was to capture the attention of river’s fish population with the movement of the lure – then, hook the fish. Time after time, cast out – reel in, cast out – reel in, repeat, repeat.
Each time the lure was cast out on the end of the long line, it would return when the line was reeled in.
Cast out – reel in.
Cast out – reel in.
That set me to thinking about the way that we often approach “casting our cares on Him.” We lay our burdens at the feet of Jesus, we bare our souls in prayer, we weep, we beg for help, we say, “Amen.” We stand up, dry our tears, blow our nose, and then…
Then we stoop, pick up the burdens, and place them back in our pocket – or we reel them in. Use whatever metaphor best resonates with you, the fact is, we have reclaimed that which we have just given to God.
That makes no sense! Why do we do that? A lack of faith? The desire to be in “control”? Maybe it’s fear that God won’t take care of the situation, or that He won’t handle it the way we want it handled. Or maybe it’s doubt that God really loves us the way that He says that He does.
The Greek word that is translated “casting” in 1 Peter 5:7 is the same word translated “put or cast or laid down” in Matthew 15:30.
“And great crowds came to Him (Jesus), bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put (cast, placed, laid) them at his feet, and he healed them.” Matthew 15:30
The idea it to put down or to throw down. In other words, once you lay it down or throw it down, you turn loose. You let go!
Whatever it is, Sister, until you let it go, you will have no peace.
The throngs of people who took their blind, crippled, mute, and diseased loved ones to Jesus for healing did so because there was NOTHING they could do in and of their own power to heal their friends and loved ones. They recognized the hopelessness of the situation without intervention by the supernatural healing power of Jesus. They had seen Jesus heal others, and they believed He would heal again. (Matthew 15:29-31)
Nowhere in Scripture does it say that the sick, blind, crippled, broken people brought to Jesus for healing were taken back home at the end of the day still sick, blind, crippled, and broken. They were healed.
Nowhere do I read in Scripture that once our cares, anxieties, or troubles are cast in prayer at Jesus’ feet or laid before the Father are we to pick up our cares or anxieties and once again carry them with us. They are now HIS.
The idea behind the use of these words – cast, put, placed, laid – carries with it a sense of expectation. Expectation that whoever is the receiver of whatever (burden) has been “cast, put, placed, or laid” takes on the responsibility for whatever has been “cast, put, placed, or laid.”
The person who “cast, put, placed, or laid” is NO LONGER RESPONSIBLE for the outcome.
Did you get that?
Our LORD God is the ONLY One with the power to do something about our situation – whatever it may be. The sooner we come to understand that our ONLY job is to live in loving obedience to our Father in all things and believe that ALL our outcomes are in HIS hands, the sooner we can find the peace that Jesus talks about in John 14:27.
Do you believe what God says?
“O LORD, You will not restrain Your mercy from me; Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness will ever preserve me!” Psalm 40:11
There are NO Scriptures that say, “pick it up again.”
There is NO putting it back in your pocket.
There is NO reeling it back in.
Psalm 55 is a prayer written by David during a time of great enemy oppression that was amplified by the betrayal of someone he considered a close friend. It is an anguish-fueled cry to God for salvation and rescue in his time of trouble. David is casting his perilous situation before the LORD.
He ended the Psalm with these words:
“Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you;
He will never permit the righteous to be moved.” Psalm 55:23
“…But I will trust in YOU.” Psalm 55:23b
Throughout his life, David brought his burdens to God, and he left them with Him. He made the decision that he would trust God.
Are you willing to cast out without reeling in?
Are you willing to trust God with your situation?
“Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.”
Isaiah 26:4