Nailed to the Cross

I'm going a little off base here today....the Lord laid something on my heart that I wanted to share. We'll resume in Proverbs soon.

Many of us have heard the wise counsel "hand over your burdens to the Lord" and "lay your worries at His feet" and other such sayings. These are all very true and very wise. They are even scriptural; for example, Peter tells us to cast our cares upon Him, for He cares for us.

Then why do we, as Christians, and especially as Christian women, have so much trouble with worry and anxiety?  I think this is a topic that we need to explore, and I hope to take a day or two and look at it with you, my friends in Christ.

You'll see, in time, the reason for my title. For now, let's start our study:

"Casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you." I Peter 5:7

Do you notice that instead of "cast" in the verse, it says "casting"? In my studies for this series, I read that there's a reason for that. The "ing" on the end makes it a participle (I probably should have paid a lot more attention to that grammar professor) and it means that it's dependent on the premise from verse six --- that had to do with humbling ourselves.
Here is how both verses look together:
⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

"Casting" is not a command, but a way of humbling ourselves. We humble ourselves by realizing that we must hand over our cares, anxieties and worries to God. His care, then, comes to us when we depend on His grace.
Sometimes I tell you about the Hebrew words and their meanings -- today we need to look at the Greek. Casting means to "throw upon, roll onto, deposit with." The secular Greek language used "casting" to draw a picture of a man who carried a heavy burden and threw it onto a camel's back.  God wants us to roll our burdens onto Him. Instead of anxiety that causes us to panic, to lose focus, God wants us to have a target for those worries -- that target is Him.
God doesn't design the circumstances and situations of our lives to break us, but to "make" us. We need to move from trusting in our own strength and in our own strategies, to resting in God, and in His resources.
He is willing and able to carry the heaviest burden for us.
When you are under pressure from worry, stop and take a breath. Remember you are His child, and relax in His grace.

“Blessed be the Lord,
Who daily loads us with benefits,
The God of our salvation! Selah” (Psalm 68:19).

We'll talk more about this in the next few days. I hope you'll join me.