LORD, IT'S DIFFICULT...I'M HAVING TROUBLE HANDLING THIS TRIAL, BUT I'M GIVING YOU THE WHOLE DEAL BECAUSE I KNOW YOU CARE FOR ME.
"Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you" 1 Peter 5:7
A mark of maturity in the life of the Christian is to become increasingly dependent upon Christ. The more we depend upon Him, the more mature and free we become in Christ. Christ is asking us to allow Him to carry the cares we have - just cast it upon the Lord. "Casting" is talking about humbling yourselves - believers can trust God because, as their Father, He cares for them. Worry is a form of pride because it involves taking concerns upon oneself instead of entrusting them to God.
Believers can safely leave all anxieties with their heavenly Father. He will care about their cares. For their part believers are to be care-free. It is one of the distinctive treasures which Christianity has inherited from Judiasm that God is known to be concerned with the personal care of his people. Other religions at best see God as aloof, as one who, while good and perfect, keeps his distance from human beings.
As we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, we should become increasingly dependent upon Him, Peter says, "Casting all your care upon Him" which means "to throw upon." That is exactly what we should do. Christ desires deeply to carry our cares, "He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4).
Peter's use of the word "all" is most interesting. He encourages us to cast all our cares upon Him. God is interested in ALL and anything that concerns us and is waiting to take those cares off our shoulders. See Matthew 11:28-30 - God wants to shoulder our heavy burdens.
God desires for us to be deeply dependent upon Him with all of our cares, sorrows, problems, needs, and questions. Nothing is too big for God nor is anything too small. Our Lord cares for a single sparrow and knows the very number of hairs on our heads (Luke 12:6-7). And He cares about our small problems as well as the large. He desires for us to be dependent upon Him, to trust in Him with all of our hearts and to lean not unto our own understanding (proverbs 3:5).
We should cast all of our care upon Him because "He cares for you." Think of it. GOD CARES FOR YOU! He loves you. He delights in caring for you. In this verse, the word means "to be anxious about" or "to be concerned," God is interested in you; He is concerned about your needs. He cares for you.
