1 PETER 5:6-7 – “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

THEME OF THE DAY: WE ARE NOT FISHING.   I love to fish. I love to fish with artificial bait.  It makes fishing much more exciting to try and outwit the fish by selecting and presenting bait in the hope that the fisherman wins the battle by tricking the prey.   Obviously, the first thing is to select the bait, and then to cast it into the desired place in the water in the hope that there are fish there.  But the bait must be retrieved by the process of reeling it back in a fashion appealing to the potential catch.

In today’s scripture there is an element of fishing, the casting part, in the Apostle Peter’s instruction.  He tells us that we are to be “casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for us”.  It is not difficult to see this picture. We feel the weight of life’s cares upon our hearts.  Overwhelming circumstances are upon us. Anxiety seeks to control us and we cry to the Lord for help.  One of those cries is obeying Peter’s command.   We enter a period of desperate prayer and cast our cares, circumstances, and anxieties upon the Lord.  That prayer may be something like this… “Lord, life is hard. I am weak.  I cannot handle all this alone.  I need Your help.  You have told me to cast everything on You with the assurance You care for me.  I do that now, Lord.  I give all my cares, burdens, circumstances, and anxieties to You as I am commanded.”

That prayer or something similar is the practical application of Peter’s instruction, and it is right and it is good and it is to be our regular, even daily practice.  We cast upon the Lord all that is too heavy for us, which is everything, and trust Him to act – “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act” (Psalm 37:5).  However, here is where the fishing illustration falls apart.

What we cast upon the Lord stays with the Lord.  We don’t cast them upon Him, and then almost immediately reel them back upon ourselves.  And who has not done that often?  When we are overwhelmed with something in life, we pray, “Lord, I give it You. I cannot handle this alone” and then almost immediately we take back by fretting, worrying, and being filled with the anxiety all that we just gave to Him!

We started well by casting them upon Him, but then we went “fishing” and reeled them in upon ourselves.  If we do this, we will catch “fish” and they will be the fishes of worry, fear, and anxiety.

Granted, this casting things upon the Lord and leaving them with Him is hard because He often doesn’t take them away.  Instead, He will strengthen us in them in order to have us spiritually grow through them.  And this is a fight not to take them back upon us.  It requires moment-by-moment resolve to refuse to reel them back.  Be encouraged. The more we fight this tendency, the more we will learn to keep what we give the Lord with the Lord.

Remember, we are not fishing.  There is no casting things upon the Lord and reeling them back.  We leave them with Him, and in doing so, we learn to do life with the Lord, and not alone in the insufficient strength of ourselves.

PRAYER: Father, help me to remember not only to cast my anxieties upon You, but to leave them there.

REFLECTION: Don’t take back what we give the Lord, not only our burdens but also our lives.