Living Free

When I first started to go to church and became a believer in Christ, the church I attended used to sing songs that were completely unfamiliar to me. Often these songs would contain actions to help the children engage and perhaps to make them more memorable for all of us.

One song I remember singing had a refrain that repeated: “Cast your burdens, on to Jesus, for He cares for you.” As a new Christian I had no idea where this came from, but the tune was catchy and I enjoyed singing it along with doing the actions that went with it. But, of course, this line comes from the verse above: 1 Peter 5:7. It is part of Peter’s instruction to believers helping to learn how to live out their faith in an alien world. And in that alien world we will be faced with things that cause us to be anxious.

By all accounts, anxiety, especially among the young, is on the increase. Even as believers in Jesus we won’t be immune from anxiety. But what Peter encourages his readers to do is to ‘cast’ our anxiety on Jesus.

The word ‘cast’ can mean something like “an act of throwing something forcefully”. In other words, Peter encourages us to not let our anxieties settle on us, but to bring them to Jesus. Why? Because He cares for us. Jesus doesn’t want our peace stolen from us by being swamped with anxieties that we can neither control nor avoid. He knows that there are things and situations that will cause us anxiety. But He calls us to throw them forcefully His way.

This reminds me of a situation when Jesus was in a boat with His disciples and a violent storm broke out. It must have been an important moment, as the story appears in all three Synoptic Gospels. In Mark’s version, while the disciples feared for their lives, Jesus slept in the stern of the boat. We read in Mark 4:38, `The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”` Having taken their anxiety to Jesus what happened? `Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and said the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm` (verse 39).

When the disciples cast their anxieties forcefully upon Jesus, He dealt with them.

Whatever you are facing today, whatever full on storms, or what may seem to be the storm clouds that signal one coming, there’s nothing better to do than to cast your anxiety on Him. Why? Because He cares for you!