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1 PETER 5:7 “CASTING ALL YOUR CARE UPON HIM, FOR HE CARES FOR YOU.” (KJV, NKJV)
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (NIV, NASB, ASV)
“Let him have all your worries and cares, for he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.” (TLB)
In Chapter 12, I had us memorize my life verse, Proverbs 3:5-6 (my mom’s life verse also.) In Chapter 34, we learned my wife, Cheryl’s life verse, Psalm 37:4. In this lesson, I would like to introduce my father’s life verse, 1 Peter 5:7. Has this trend of memorizing a life verse caught on with you yet?
I never met my grandfather, Curtis Matthews. When my father, Donnie Gene Matthews was just four years old, his father Curtis developed appendicitis, a disease which, today is very identifiable and even easier to treat. Your appendix can be removed and you return home the same day with barely a noticeable incision now. Back in 1937, however, it was anything but simple.
Grandpa Curtis developed an infected appendix. By the time he was taken to the hospital to treat it, it was already too far deteriorated and it burst, resulting in his death. My Grandma Bert (Alberta Matthews) was left alone to raise a son, who later became a rambunctious teenager and even later a devoted servant and pastor for the Lord who served Him for over fifty years.
Dad told us that Grandma Bert did her best to work to feed and house them while Dad spent a lot of his time with uncles, aunts and cousins, without a father. No doubt, this was a troubled time filled with many fears, cares and anxieties that were often overwhelming.
Dad was also very much raised in the church. Grandma was devoted to the Lord and to the church and took Dad there every Sunday. Dad gave his heart to the Lord at an early age. But that alone did not relieve the worries and cares of growing up without a father. Only Jesus did that for him. Is it any wonder that 1 Peter 5:7 became his life verse?
Peter was a fisherman by trade long before he met Jesus. He knew what it meant to cast a net. You threw it out of the boat in hopes of catching a large number of fish. He learned under the tutelage of Jesus what it meant to become a “fisher of men.” Many years after Jesus ascended to heaven and left Peter and the others to continue building the church, Peter would reflect on many of the cares he had experienced during a very adventurous, but dangerous and troubling ministry and life. So do we.
Whether or not our lives are devoted to full time ministry, as so many among us have done, every person’s life is filled with cares and anxieties that come along with just living life. It didn’t start that way with Adam and Eve. But because of the original fall of sin that plagues us all, we live in a world where survival only comes by much work, successes and failures, struggles with all the problems of the world and anxiety over what tomorrow can bring.
In the middle of a bunch of instructions to a bunch of elders in the church regarding submission, humility, self control and resisting temptation, Peter tells us to cast all our cares on Jesus. By this time, Peter knew this little “nugget of truth” to be true because he had proved it by experience.
Shortly after Jesus left them and the anxiety of being left alone with so big a responsibility as leading the new church, Peter found that casting that anxiety on Jesus brought him relief. When Peter was challenged by others who put him in prison, who tried to stone him and who even resisted him in the church, he found that the only meaningful way to deal with such anxiety was to cast it on Jesus.
Even as he approached the end of his life and, as we would, experienced the fear of probably being crucified like Jesus was, only casting that care upon Jesus gave him the courage to proclaim that he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as Jesus. He would tell us, “Cast all your cares on Jesus, because He cares for you.”
Christian brother, there will be those who want nothing but for you to fail. That is a major concern, but cast that concern to Jesus and just keep being faithful to Him. Sister, others will abandon you…they will turn their backs on you after telling you how much they love you. But cast those cares on Jesus, if for no other reason than He wants to carry them for you so you don’t have to carry them alone.
Husband or wife, you may have never experienced the pain and suffering like you do now, having lost the love of your life, either through death or separation. It may not seem like something you can handle and carry alone. Jesus doesn’t expect you to. Cast those hurts, pain and cares toward Him. He cares for you, loves you and does not expect you to carry them alone. He will carry them with you and for you.
Jesus spoke to His disciples, as quoted to us in Matthew 11:28-29, about this subject. He interestingly told us, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Sometimes, all the troubles I experience in my life bring me to the point where His rest is all I want and definitely all I need.
It almost seems like an oxymoron, however, when He then says, “Take my yoke upon you.” The last thing I want is another yoke! Of course, the secret here is that the Lord’s yoke isn’t like the yokes of the world. “His yoke is easy. His burden is light.” That is far different from the yoke, troubles and cares of this world. He even promises that we will find “rest unto our souls.”
Peter gives us an interesting conclusion after all of his instructions in 1 Peter 5. In verse ten, he tells us that, “after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” What a promise! All of that and I can cast every care upon Him!
It really is your choice. You can handle all the worries of life on your own if you want to. Life is full of examples of people who have worked themselves to death to achieve the small measures of success that we think are so great. Our culture is full of people with ulcers, sicknesses and growing old before their time while handling all the cares of life on their own shoulders.
Honestly, I have gotten to the point so many times when life got so hard, I experienced so many failures and defeats and the weight of it all could only be relieved by giving it all to Jesus. And I always found that He was right there waiting on me to bring them all to Him from the beginning. Go ahead and handle it all on your own. I think I’ll cast all those cares on Jesus. He cares for me. And letting Him handle them is always more meaningful and successful than handling them alone.
Questions to ponder: Why do we think handling our problems on our own is better than giving them to Jesus? What evidence can we see that Jesus is taking those burdens from us when we cast them on Him? Is there any problem He can’t handle? Does it ever seem after giving our problems to Jesus that we are still bearing them all alone? Does Jesus leave us with problems He will not take away? Paul’s thorn in the flesh?
Scriptures to consider: Matt 11:28-30, Psalm 68:19 “…Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” Galatians 6:2 “Carry each other’s burdens…” Psalm 55:22 “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you.” Nahum 1:7 “He cares for those who trust in him.”
 
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