I used to really love 1 Peter 5:7. Now I really, really love it. That’s the passage where Peter wrote, “Cast all your anxiety on [God] because he cares for you.” The fact that God cares so much that we can talk to him about “all” our anxiety is breathtaking. 

But what I didn’t realize until recently was the definition of the word cast. In Greek, that word only appears twice in the entire New Testament—here and in Luke 19:35. In Luke, on Palm Sunday, the disciples cast/threw their cloaks on a donkey for Jesus to ride. In other words, they didn’t share their cloaks with the donkey, keeping an arm in one sleeve as the donkey lumbered toward Jerusalem! No, the disciples threw their entire cloaks off of themselves and onto the donkey. That’s what cast means.

Get where I’m going? Peter picked the same verb, meaning that God doesn’t want you to hold on to any of your anxiety. He doesn’t want to go halfsies on your worry or split the bill with your fear. No! He wants you to cast all of it, to throw it off of yourself and onto him. He cares about you that much. So make wise plans, do your best, and say your prayers, but then leave the rest to God. That’s what it means to “cast all your anxiety on him.”

I told you it was a really, really great passage!