Cast…Release

Casting all your cares on Him, for He cares for you 
1 Peter 5:7

I love the picturesque word of God that speaks to our humanness and need.  I see this Scripture and I imagine, someone casting a heavy net or anchor off into the deep. Verse by Verse Commentary* uses a variety of words to describe this action. One option is the word, loading or even unloading a burden from yourself onto a beast of burden.  Still another is the use of the word rolling – like rolling a heavy load from one place to another.

But here is the issue that I run up against. I do a lot of casting only to pull it back. I do a lot of unloading onto only to reload back.  And I do a lot of rolling things away only to maintain a grasp and roll them right back again.  Of course, I know that this isn’t God’s fault. His back is strong enough, His capacity great enough, His sea of mercy wide enough to receive any burden and hold them, but, I, in my humanness, struggle to truly let these burdens go. 

It was in the context of this previous verse, 1 Peter 5:6, that I was given a clue as to why this keeps happening. 

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, 
that He may exalt you in due time

Why a verse about humility before a verse about casting our worries and cares on Him? I realized that it is so often pride that keeps me from asking for help and truly surrendering things to the Lord.  I am thinking TOO MUCH of myself and TOO LITTLE of Him. 

Sometimes, I think too much of myself and although I might cast off the burden, pretty soon I am finding ways and reasons to reel it back in, thinking I can come up with a solution or handle it myself. I might unload that suitcase full of worries onto God’s shoulders, only to maintain a grasp on the handle and pull it right back down onto my own shoulders. And, I might roll my anxieties over to His side of the proverbial bed only to reach over and roll them right back to mine for ‘safe keeping’.  

We are prisoners to our burdens as long as we insist on carrying those burdens ourselves. 

Other times, I am simply thinking too little of Him. I underestimate the love and strength of my Father to handle these burdens that I have.  One of my favorite passages that sustained me during my bout with cancer was Psalms 62:11, 12

One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard, that you, 
O God, are strong and that you, O Lord, are loving. (NIV) 

Not only can He fully handle our burdens with His overwhelming strength, but He also deeply loves us with an overwhelming love and care.  One of my instructors in missionary training once said that another way of reading this verse is Casting all your cares on Him, because it matters to Him about you. We matter to Him, our burdens matter to Him, our anxieties matter to Him, our worries matter to Him. He is ready and willing to help when we look to Him.

How I wish this was a once off!  But, alas, it is a life-long struggle of surrendering in humility. It’s a continual choice to not reach out and grab the ropes to the net that I have cast off, to release the handle of that suitcase I’ve unloaded or to refuse to start feeling around for a handhold of that burden I’ve rolled away. I find it to be a whole lot of cast…re-cast…repeat!

Yet, God in His goodness and grace, gives us the strength to let go as many times as we need to in order to come to a place of full surrender and humility, changing the cycle of cast…re-cast….repeat to CAST….RELEASE!

*https://versebyversecommentary.com/1998/02/01/1-peter-57/

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