How many of you like to fish?  The first requirement of fishing is to have the right equipment!  Now in the old days if we didn’t have a rod or reel, we would improvise using a flexible tree branch or twig.  Then we attached some strong twine and tied on a hook.  We would catch a live grasshopper or dig up some wiggly worms and put the live bait on the hook.

The next step was to “cast” the fishing line into the water.  When we felt a tug on the line we would retrieve the make-shift rod and reach for the fish.  Sometimes the hook would get caught on something and in our excitement, thinking it was a fish, we would jerk the line only to find nothing there.

So what’s the purpose in this reminiscing?  The point is that the Bible uses the word cast or casting in multiple scriptures and it reminded me of my younger days when we would go fishing.  I could picture the analogy of fishing regarding our worries, fears, anxieties, etc…  We are instructed to “cast” our cares upon the Lord because He cares for us.  In the Greek this word actually means “to throw upon.”

I came to a deeper understanding of this verse (I Peter 5:7) a few years ago.  As I studied I gained more insight for a personal application of the Lord’s instruction.  As Christians we are told not to worry, just trust God, don’t dwell on your problems, etc…

Yes, this is true, however, many of us have experienced a struggle while sincerely trying to do this.  Sometimes the harder we try, the more difficult it becomes to “let go” and the bigger the problem appears.  We end up viewing the greatness of the problem instead of the greatness of our God!

“….because he cares for you”.   Stop, contemplate what this is truly saying.  If and when we truly release our cares to the Lord, He in turn, picks them up and does the caring for us.  Instead of our doing the caring, He actually does the caring!

Now, Friend, don’t you think that God is more capable of caring for your situation than you are?  God literally will take those cares and begin working on your behalf, doing the “caring” or should we say “care-taking”.

I Peter 5:7 – “Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you.”

Adam Clarke’s commentary regarding this verse says:

“for He [God] meddles or concerns himself, with the things that interest you. Whatever things concern a follower of God, whether they be spiritual or temporal, or whether in themselves great or small, God concerns Himself with them; what affects them affects Him; in all their afflictions He is afflicted. He who knows that God cares for him need have no anxious cares about himself. This is a plain reference to Psalm 55:22: Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee. He will bear both thee and thy burden.” (Adam Clarke’s Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1996, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

You’re familiar with the term “take care”.  This “take care” expression has become so common that we don’t think a thing about saying it.  I have been guilty of this as well.  I meant it as a term of endearment, a shorter way of saying, “I care about you, take care of yourself. “ Often this phrase is used when saying goodbye, ending a conversation or phone call.  Actually we should be saying “cast your cares.”  God is the only One we should ask to “take care.”

Let’s decide this year to cast away our destructive habit of worrying and fretting.  Picture yourself by a lake or stream, you’ve attached your worries and fears on the end of a hook and you cast them into the water (representing the Lord’s care).  The Lord will catch them and when you pull back the rod it will be like the fish that got away.  In other words they are not there anymore because you have given them to the Lord.

There is such relief when we truly cast our cares upon the Lord and leave them in His hands.

The next time your thoughts begin to go down the trail of fears, remember to “cast your cares” upon the Lord.  He is truly the only One who understands and knows what is best in every circumstance.

Isaiah 26:3 NKJV – “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in you.”