Casting Your Cares — Broken & Hopeful
Sometimes my purse gets incredibly heavy while I’m lugging it around day in and day out. When I finally decide to figure out what is making it so weighed down, usually it’s a random toy or some other heavy object that I don’t need to be carrying around, but have forgotten is in there. One time it was giant rock that my son had slipped in there for me to carry for him! After the troubling object was removed, I felt so much lighter and my shoulder quit hurting!
The point is, I wasn’t achieving anything by carrying around a random weight in my purse. How often do we carry around things that are too heavy for us, thinking we are doing what we need to do while actually we are trying to do God’s job?
Peter tells us to cast our cares and anxiety on God because He cares for us. And sometimes I have to visualize pulling things off my shoulders and putting them on the lap of my Heavenly Father. I think it’s my job to carry weights that are too heavy for me, things I can do nothing about. But in trying to deal with them, I am going to be overwhelmed because it is only God who has enough strength to carry them.
What is weighing you down today that you can pour out on Him? Troubled relationships, past hurts, lost dreams, worries about the future, work stress, financial woes? Pull it off your shoulders and put it on His lap, leaving it there for Him to deal with and care for you in it. He tenderly cares for you, and for whoever it is you are worried about, so it’s best to leave it with Him and not try to figure out the situation in your own anxiety.
Does this mean we don’t do anything about the situation? Nope. But we have to constantly cast off our cares on Him as we go ahead. Some circumstances are out of our hands and we can’t do anything about them. Leave them with Him. Some are choices made by others and we can’t fix them. Leave them with Him. Some are past hurts which can’t be changed. Leave them with Him. Stewing over any of these doesn’t help. I like to say that I have yet to meet a person who has worried about a situation enough to be emotionally prepared for it. Or to emotionally get over it. So, leave it with Him.
This isn’t a resignation, but rather a choice to give to Him that which we care about the most or that which hurts us the most. This is a vulnerability as we entrust Him with our burdens. But as He tenderly cares for us, it is the best choice to leave all our worries with Him. He is the only One strong enough to carry them.
Pour out all your worries and stress upon him and leave them there, for he always tenderly cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
