Casting All Your Care

1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you

Context: 1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God and so that at the proper time He may exalt you… 1 Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

From the lexicon: Cast=Throw upon; care=anxiety, being torn in all directions; Cares for you=make us an object of His care.

Pulling it together: I Peter 5:7 invites us to throw all the things that pull us in all directions on Jesus Christ because we are objects of His care. This is such a wonderful and lifechanging promise if we truly lay hold of it.

But there is more. This exhortation is a continuation of a sentence begun in the preceding verse: Humble yourselves under God and He will lift you. The implication is that casting our cares on our Savior is an act of humility of aligning ourselves or better yet putting ourselves in our rightful place–under God, agreeing that God is God and I am not. To take on our cares ourselves is an attempt to do what God has not called us to do. This is an act of pride, which subjects us to the attacks of the prowling lion that seeks to draw us away from our loving Lord.

Prayer: In these troubled times when I am torn in all directions, I pray for grace to throw my worries, doubts, and fears upon you and to leave them there.