“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)
On my office shelf sits a reminder of my childhood: my dad’s fishing float. It’s your average red and white round bobber, and it represents my memories of fishing with my dad. My dad loved to get up in the wee hours of the morning and go fishing. If you wanted to fish with dad, you had to get up early. It was early one morning that my dad taught me how to fish. First, I had to learn to bait the hook. This didn’t scare me – I just grabbed that night crawler, pinched it in half (sorry little worm), and baited the hook. Then, dad taught me how to cast my line. This was a bit harder for me and took some practice. I held the handle of the rod in my right hand, pushed the button with my thumb, swung it out to the side, and tried to cast that line as far as I could. But every single time, the line would not come out of the rod! I couldn’t figure out what I was doing differently than my dad. He showed me that I had to let go of the button. I realized that I was holding onto the button because I was afraid that if I let go of the button, I would throw the entire rod and reel into the water! My dad taught me to let go.
Letting go of cares is much like that button on my fishing rod. I find myself holding tightly to my worries, as if by pure human strength I can fix all of my problems on my own. If I just squeeze them tight enough, obsess over them long enough, talk through them with just the right friends, then, I can surely solve them on my own. But Peter’s instruction is to cast our anxieties on God – and to let them go. In the verse 6 Peter tells us to “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God (NASB).” To humble ourselves is to take everything that stands between us and God, and to cast that upon Him. We know we can trust God to handle them because this verse reminds us that “He cares for us.”
Over time I became very good at casting my fishing line. Letting go of my worries is taking a bit longer. But it’s okay – He cares for me. And He’s still teaching me to let go.
PROCESS
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What thing, person, event, experience do you need to let go of in order to experience what God has in store for you?
What does this scripture teach you about Jesus?
What does it teach you about yourself?