Seeds for 06/28/2024 - 1 Peter 5:7
Scripture:
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.
Observation:
This is a very short line that deserves all the attention it gets. It is simple, yet speaks profoundly about the compassion of the God we know in Jesus.
Let’s engage the promise we find here. Here's what stands out to me as noteworthy.
First, “Cast all your anxiety on Him.” What an invitation! Our worries and anxieties cause us a great deal of stress and more than a few fitful and sleepless nights. Our troubles weigh on us. They weasel their way into our minds, burden our hearts, and can even occupy room in our soul. One reason I love this verse is because of the verb “cast.” There’s a forcefulness and intentionality that matches the danger attached to allowing those anxieties to bring us down.
Second, the little word “all” is significant. We need not spend time and energy deciding what is important enough to bother the Lord or what is too trivial. There is one criteria: Is this a worry? The decision tree is simple. If yes, cast it on Him. I would plead with you to receive and act on Peter’s wisdom here in your praying.
Third, Peter supplies the rationale for his exhortation: “because He cares for you.” This is so simple, but a lesson we cannot hear enough. It is one we can agree with in principle, but fail to follow in practice. He cares for you. The whole of Jesus’ life, mission, and ministry—incarnation, teaching, healing, praying, suffering, cross, resurrection, ascension—are the guarantee of this simple, profound statement. A nearly fourteen billion year-old universe with billions of galaxies suggests that we are small and insignificant. The Creator God entering human history to save, redeem, and restore us shouts that we are cared for more than we can imagine.
Yes, life presses against this claim. But the cross argues for it in the strongest possible terms: “Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’”
Application:
What is your current criteria for whether to cast a worry upon God?
How could you practice Peter’s instruction for a day? A week?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, help me cast all my anxiety upon you, trusting that you care for me. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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