Casting or dropping?

   I have always loved Peter’s admonition regarding worries, anxieties, and cares: “casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.” [1Peter 5:7, Amplified]

I don’t know why I never noticed before, however, that this Scripture is a continuation of verse 6, with a comma at the end: “Therefore, humble yourselves [demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation] under the Mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you,”.  I knew this Scripture by heart, too. I just never connected them as one sentence.

So, in essence, in order to truly ‘cast your care,’ as Dave Meyer is found of quoting, you must be in a position of true humility, knowing you are incapable of solving or fixing even the least of your concerns on your own. Or using another analogy, if we think God is our copilot to help us in those times of crisis for assistance or support, and that we can handle things as pilot the rest of the time, we must change seats, as the expression goes.  Our humility must stem from a daily, root awareness of how much we need Him and how ready He is to be involved in all aspects of our lives..

We truck about on our own, get ourselves into a pickle (or find ourselves in one due to outside circumstances) and then realize we need His assistance. What if you had an acquaintance whom you called a friend, yet you never talked to her except in emergencies?  What kind of friendship would that be?  Rather than a friend, she’d be more like a ‘roadside assistance’ plan.

The invitation to ‘cast our cares’ is intricately woven into our daily relationship with a loving Father
whom we recognize as not only strong in our weakness but also desirous of ongoing daily dialogue with us. He’s merciful enough to not turn His back on our roadside calls for help, but this is not how
He wants our relationship with Him to be.  And, truly, the latter will never bring transformation and
sanctification in our lives.  We’ll just keep hopping from emergency to emergency with no real change in who we are or how we live.  We also have to heed Yeshua's warning in Matthew 7, "I never knew you."

This is not news to many of my readers. However, like the Drifting Out of Lane post, even devoted followers of ADONAI may find themselves slipping out of intimate relationship and into this danger zone, too busy doing God's work to spend significant time with the One for Whom they're working.  Many a minister (whether ordained or lay) has self-combusted in this way.

Ask the Father to do as David asked in his 139th psalm:  "Search me, O God, and know my heart..try me and know my thoughts...."  Ask Him for the results of your lab report in humility, purity, tenderheartedness, faith, trust; and, most of all, in the transformation that comes from daily disappearing into All He Is: the Great I AM.  Cares tend to become impotent in that encounter. Meditate for a moment on the word ‘carefree.’ Or ‘care-free.’ If we are to be truly free from worry and anxiety, we must ‘cast’ our cares onto His strong shoulders. He has  invited and encouraged us to do so. We musn’t just drop them on the ground for the moment to rest as we have a short chat with Him, later picking them up and slinging them over our own shoulders once again, or even leaving them by the roadside. Flinging them to Him with every bit of strength we have is an act of our will and our ongoing deep trust and faith in Him. It shouts, “I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him...! ” “I am my Beloved’s and He is mine...”!**
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*2 Timothy 1:12
**Song of Solomon 6:3
“The one who is caught by [love] is bound by the strongest of bonds—and yet it is a pleasant burden....Nothinng makes you so much God’s, nor God so much yours, as this sweet bond. The one who has found this way will seek no other.”  —A.W. Tozer