December 3 – Shifting the Burden

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” - 1 Peter 5:6-7 (NASB)

It is a true statement and worthy to be learned. “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble,” (Proverbs 3:34; Matthew 23:12; James 4:10). As we are told by the Apostle Paul in Philippians “be anxious for nothing,” here Peter tells us to “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.”  This is an Old Testament symbol of the power of God working in the experience of men, always accomplishing His sovereign purpose. But humility can cause anxiety.  Peter also tells us what to do with our anxiety – get rid of it! Cast it ALL on Him! This is a good practice to follow and we have a good reason we can trust it – He cares for us. How wonderful it is to know that we have a heavenly Father who cares and knows that we have special concerns. We stumble and fall because of our worry but He is always there to help us up. Our Lord tells us here to turn to him and turn those cares over to Him. Transfer the anxious thoughts and worries from your ledger to His ledger. Then observe how much He cares for you and me. He truly does, it's a promise.

198

November 8 – Learning To Cast

“…having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you.”  1 Peter 5:7 (NASB)

What is before the ellipsis in our verse?  It is the instruction to take on humility under God’s mighty hand. He promises He will exalt us in time. This is after we have turned over to God all that we are anxious about. That is the requirement. Everything that upsets us. 

• Every worry. 
• Every concern. 
• Everything that is not working out the way we believe it should. 
• Every apprehension about the evil, hateful, ungodly, despicable cheating, lying, and underhanded manipulations, affecting our future. 
• Every fear of losing our freedom and liberty and our major dismay with who will be leading our country. 

Wrap all these up and cast them on Jesus. He does not want us to lug these cares around. They get in the way. He can do something about it and we can only give them to him. God cares and that’s our promise you, He cares about me, about us –all who He has chosen and called and redeemed from permanent spiritual death. He does not want us to be stirred up or to stir up others with things we really can’t change. He cares about us enough to take these anxieties away for us. 

- 198 -

September 21 – Trust and Cast Off

“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.” Psalm 56:3 (NASB)
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,  casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”  1 Peter 5:6-7 (NASB)

Two verses today affirm the promise that we can depend upon God to care for us and to take care of us – especially when we are in upsetting circumstances. Notice: the verse in Psalm 56 does not say, “I never struggle with fear.” Fear strikes without warning sometimes and other times we see it approaching like a stampede of buffalo on the prairie. The battle begins. The Bible does not teach that true believers will have no anxieties. Instead, the Bible tells us how to fight when they strike. The promise in 1 Peter 5:7 gives us our strategy when fear and anxiety come upon us. Are we feeling fear, worry, or other forms of anxiety these days?  Has an uncertain future disturbed the life we had several months ago? Dealing with feelings of anxiety every day is more or less normal. The question we have is: How do we fight them? We fight anxieties by fighting against unbelief and fighting for faith in future grace by meditating on God’s promises and assurances of future grace and by asking for the help of his Spirit. (1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7)

- 191 -

November 29 – Daily Dumping the Anxiety

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” Psalm 68:19 (NIV)
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  1 Peter 5:7  (NIV)

Imagine the life of the Lords and Ladies who have someone to attend to all their physical needs as seen on TV programs and movies.  But the servants from downstairs cannot carry the burdens, the worries of those they served.  We have two verses today and we are reminded by our verses that our God is concerned about us and He actually bears our burdens and He wants us to throw them off by  giving them to Him. Our burdens are the matters that cause us great concern and make us afraid.  Since God is ready to care these things for us, we do not have to be concerned about them, do we? Either we try to bear up under their weight or we let God fulfill this promise to bear them for us.  Since God is going to carry my burdens, why should I continue to try carry them?  I'll just get in His way.  Really, what God is waiting for is for us to cast these matters onto Him.  Note one other very special word – the word “daily.” Is that not great?  He will take our burdens today and if something else comes up tomorrow, He will take that, too, and so on day after day!

# # #

March 4 – Learning to Cast Well

“Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”   Psalm 55:22 (NASB)

Burdens are difficult to carry about with us aren't they? The psalmist tell us that we can cast our burdens upon God.  Those who fish for fun or for a living know the idea of casting.  It is not just dropping our concerns but it is heaving them off to someone else. These burdens are the things that are of great concern to us.  And, we are told that we can depend on God to take care of us while He takes care of our burdens.  Why upon God?  Because He is strong enough to deal with them.  He promises how he cares for us when He says He will sustain us.  If we trust Him, we will be sustained by Him. That is a huge promise for those of us who carry the burden of financial worry or are afflicted with the burden of illness or disability.  Burdens create problems but casting them upon God relieves us.  Why does God promise to do this? Because of an even greater promise that He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.  This idea of shaken means to slip or fall from defeat.  Let's not carry our burdens any longer today, or tomorrow and all tomorrows.  Each time they appear, throw them off by casting them upon God.

# # #

December 3 – Shifting the Burden

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)

As we are told by the Apostle Paul in Philippians “be anxious for nothing,” here Peter tells us what to do with our anxiety – get rid of it! Cast it ALL on Him! This is a good practice to follow and we have a good reason we can trust it – He cares for us. How wonderful it is to know that we have a heavenly Father who cares about us. Yes, He knows that we have special concerns and that we sometimes become anxious about things, wondering how things are going to turn out. We stumble and fall because of our worry but He is always there to help us up. Our Lord tells us here to turn to him and turn those cares over to Him. Transfer the anxious thoughts and worries from your ledger to His ledger. Then observe how He cares for you and me. He really does, it's a promise.

November 12 – He Carries All

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” Psalm 55:22 (NIV)

The picture we see here is one we can truly like. It invites us to cast our cares on the Lord.  This means that we sometimes have concerns which become a burden to us but which our God is able and willing to take care of for us.  So we are admonished to let the Lord carry our burdens.  But that is not all that we are given in this verse. It says that our Lord will sustain us. Now that word sustain really means to hold from underneath. So the Lord not only takes our cares and carries them, He also carries us. Our problems do not have to be something we worry about if we toss them on Jesus. We do not have to worry about ourselves either because He will bring us through. What a rich and encouraging promise to think about today.

May 22 – Tossing Cares, Troubles, and Problems

“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” Psalm 55:22 (NIV)

This is an invitation for us to let God take care of the problems we face in our lives. We are invited to turn our cares over to him. The idea is to toss them off our back and onto the Lord and he will carry our burdens – and take care of our burdens. Like having a friend who will take your backpack and carry it so you do not have to. But that is not all. These words also tell us that God will also sustain us. This means the God will hold us up from underneath. When our burden is too much not only will he take it off our back and carry it, He will carry us as well. Our cares sometimes can shake us up but God will help. Let's allow Him to carry our burdens and to carry us today. Toss your worries, your cares, your problems and all that troubles you onto Him. He will not let you fall. 

September 10

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” Psalm 55:22 (NIV)

I would like to direct your attention to one word in the verse. It is the word SUSTAIN. It really means to hold from underneath. So we are not invited to throw off our cares and burdens and then go on living in our own strength. No, God not only takes the cares that we commit to Him, but he carries us, too. He carries our concerns and He carries us as well. He promises in verses 10 and 13 in Isaiah 41 that he will uphold us with His righteous right hand and then that He upholds our own right hand. Remember your Lord wants to support you and he will not let you be shaken.