Cast All Your Cares

1 Peter 5:7 - "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you."

Psalm 55:22 - "Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."

When I throw the ball for my dogs, sometimes one of them is good about putting the ball at my feet after retrieving it. But other times, he would drop it just out of reach or a little farther. When he does that, I usually refuse to throw the ball for him. My dog knows that he has to put it at my feet if he wants the ball thrown. That reminds me of how we treat God at times.

We know that we are to take all our cares to God, but sometimes we don’t lay them at His feet, but rather a little in front of Him so that He would have to reach for them. When we do that, we are not displaying trust but doubt. In the hymn “What A Friend We Have In Jesus,” the composer urges us four times to “take [everything] to the Lord in prayer.” In the first verse, he talks about the peace we often forfeit and all the needless pain we bear, “all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” The more needless pain we bear, the more peace we forfeit. We rob ourselves of the peace we could have every time we fail to take our cares to the Lord.

We should remember that we do have a friend in Jesus. He has already proven His love for us by laying His life down for us. We would do well to cast all our cares upon Jesus. He always knows what to do with them. In turn, our Lord will renew us with that peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).