Cast Your Anxiety

Originally Published Jan 1997

Scripture

(All scrip­ture is taken from the NIV)

1 Peter 5 [show]1 Peter 5 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fel­low elder and a wit­ness of the suf­fer­ings of Christ, as well as a par­taker in the glory that is going to be revealed: [2]shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exer­cis­ing over­sight, not under com­pul­sion, but will­ingly, as God would have you; not for shame­ful gain, but eagerly; [3]not dom­i­neer­ing over those in your charge, but being exam­ples to the flock. [4]And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfad­ing crown of glory. [5]Likewise, you who are younger, be sub­ject to the elders. Clothe your­selves, all of you, with humil­ity toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the hum­ble.“ [6]Humble your­selves, there­fore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, [7]casting all your anx­i­eties on him, because he cares for you. [8]Be sober-minded; be watch­ful. Your adver­sary the devil prowls around like a roar­ing lion, seek­ing some­one to devour. [9]Resist him, firm in your faith, know­ing that the same kinds of suf­fer­ing are being expe­ri­enced by your broth­er­hood through­out the world. [10]And after you have suf­fered a lit­tle while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eter­nal glory in Christ, will him­self restore, con­firm, strengthen, and estab­lish you. [11]To him be the domin­ion for­ever and ever. Amen. [12]By Silvanus, a faith­ful brother as I regard him, I have writ­ten briefly to you, exhort­ing and declar­ing that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. [13]She who is at Babylon, who is like­wise cho­sen, sends you greet­ings, and so does Mark, my son. [14]Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. (ESV)
:5b-11 All of you, clothe your­selves with humil­ity toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the hum­ble.” Humble your­selves, there­fore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anx­i­ety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roar­ing lion look­ing for some­one to devour. Resist him, stand­ing firm in the faith, because you know that your broth­ers through­out the world are under­go­ing the same kind of suf­fer­ings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eter­nal glory in Christ, after you have suf­fered a lit­tle while, will him­self restore you and make you strong, firm and stead­fast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Lesson

Peter

Peter has always been my favorite char­ac­ter in the Bible. Just look at him! There he is stand­ing strong, tall, proud, self-assured. A nat­ural born leader. When Christ entered his life, Peter for­sook all includ­ing his wife, fam­ily and his fish­ing busi­ness. He did the right thing and trusted Jesus. He even walked on water!

Of course, he did sink too! But that is part of why I have always liked Peter, he was a real per­son. He was a man who trusted Christ but early in his Christian walk had a lot of prob­lems get­ting dis­tracted by what was going on around him. He would take his eyes off of Christ and fail. He was walk­ing on the water and then splash he looks at the waves instead of Jesus. He makes a great state­ment of insight on who Christ is and in the next breath takes his eyes off of that very Person and makes so blun­der­ous of a state­ment Christ says, “Get behind me Satan.” Ouch! And then of course, even while he is watch­ing the pro­ceed­ings of his Lord’s trial he begins to also watch what else is going on around him and begins to worry for his own skin, deny­ing Jesus three times. When he finally looks back to Christ, it tears him to shreds not only because of what he did but also because he knows Jesus knew what he had just done.

Peter, to all eyes must have looked like a fail­ure. Yet we find him as the leader of the 12 apos­tles just 40 days lat­ter and not soon after, he has the courage to be thrown in jail, get lashed with the whip, and at the end of his life, accord­ing to tra­di­tion, he was hung upside down on a cross because he didn’t feel wor­thy enough to hang on a cross in the same man­ner of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

When we read in 1 Peter 5:7 [show]1 Peter 5:7 [7]casting all your anx­i­eties on him, because he cares for you. (ESV)
“Cast all your anx­i­ety on him because he cares for you” we can believe it because Peter had lived it. He knew what it was to fail due to anx­i­ety and he knew what it was like to totally and absolutely rely on Jesus. He knew Christ Cares.

Casting Your Anxiety

It is not always easy to cast our anx­i­eties away. Peter under­stood the key, humil­ity.

Proverbs 3 [show]Proverbs 3 My son, do not for­get my teach­ing, but let your heart keep my com­mand­ments, [2]for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. [3]Let not stead­fast love and faith­ful­ness for­sake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. [4]So you will find favor and good suc­cess in the sight of God and man. [5]Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own under­stand­ing. [6]In all your ways acknowl­edge him, and he will make straight your paths. [7]Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. [8]It will be heal­ing to your flesh and refresh­ment to your bones. [9]Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the first­fruits of all your pro­duce; [10]then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be burst­ing with wine. [11]My son, do not despise the LORD’s dis­ci­pline or be weary of his reproof, [12]for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. [13]Blessed is the one who finds wis­dom, and the one who gets under­stand­ing, [14]for the gain from her is bet­ter than gain from sil­ver and her profit bet­ter than gold. [15]She is more pre­cious than jew­els, and noth­ing you desire can com­pare with her. [16]Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. [17]Her ways are ways of pleas­ant­ness, and all her paths are peace. [18]She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed. [19]The LORD by wis­dom founded the earth; by under­stand­ing he estab­lished the heav­ens; [20]by his knowl­edge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew. [21]My son, do not lose sight of these– keep sound wis­dom and dis­cre­tion, [22]and they will be life for your soul and adorn­ment for your neck. [23]Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stum­ble. [24]If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. [25]Do not be afraid of sud­den ter­ror or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes, [26]for the LORD will be your con­fi­dence and will keep your foot from being caught. [27]Do not with­hold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. [28]Do not say to your neigh­bor, “Go, and come again, tomor­row I will give it”–when you have it with you. [29]Do not plan evil against your neigh­bor, who dwells trust­ingly beside you. [30]Do not con­tend with a man for no rea­son, when he has done you no harm. [31]Do not envy a man of vio­lence and do not choose any of his ways, [32]for the devi­ous per­son is an abom­i­na­tion to the LORD, but the upright are in his con­fi­dence. [33]The LORD’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of the right­eous. [34]Toward the scorners he is scorn­ful, but to the hum­ble he gives favor. [35]The wise will inherit honor, but fools get dis­grace.
, from which Peter most likely was loosely quot­ing in our pas­sage, repeats this les­son over and over again. Peter knew from per­sonal expe­ri­ence what it was saying,

Prov. 3:5 [show]Proverbs 3:5 [5]Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own under­stand­ing.
— Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

Prov. 3:25 [show]Proverbs 3:25 [25]Do not be afraid of sud­den ter­ror or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes,
— Have no fear of sud­den dis­as­ter or of the ruin that over­takes the wicked,
for the Lord will be your con­fi­dence and will keep your foot from being snared.

Prov. 3:34 [show]Proverbs 3:34 [34]Toward the scorners he is scorn­ful, but to the hum­ble he gives favor.
— He mocks proud mock­ers but gives grace to the humble.

As long as we rely on our own selves, we will never be able to cast away our anx­i­eties. No mat­ter how con­fi­dent we may be in our own abil­i­ties, we know deep down that they are never suf­fi­cient to han­dle every­thing. As such, we can be noth­ing but anx­ious since we know that we will even­tu­ally fail. God finds us humor­ous when we proudly mock as if we will never fall for he knows that it isn’t a mat­ter of when we will fall but if we can ever stand up. Not with­out His Power.

When Peter would cast out his net to catch fish, he would have been very care­ful not to get entan­gled in the net. In the same way, as we cast our anx­i­eties on Christ, we have to make sure we do not get our­selves entan­gled in that net of anx­i­ety. We do so by remain­ing hum­ble before the Lord. The minute we try to take any con­trol over that net, we will just get it all messed up and in the end, cause our­selves grief.

As we hum­ble our­selves before God, acknowl­edg­ing that He and He alone can “keep our feet from being snared” we can run, not just walk, but run, not fear­ing what may lie before us because we know that He is mak­ing our paths straight.

Standing Tough

Peter also under­stood that cast­ing our anx­i­eties meant that there would be times when we would need to stand tough. Casting our anx­i­eties isn’t throw­ing a blan­ket of pro­tec­tion around our­selves rather it is an atti­tude, a way of life which stands tough despite what may be going on around and to us.

Peter after Pentecost could have eas­ily walked on the water with a hur­ri­cane going on around him. He had learned that the cir­cum­stances we find our­selves in do not mat­ter. What mat­ters is Christ. When he found him­self in prison and then stand­ing trial, he could state con­fi­dently that he would do what what right before God and take what­ever con­se­quences may come his way should those who opposed Christ do their worst. Peter wasn’t pro­tected from the beat­ing he received from the Sanhedrin but he could stand tough and rejoice because he trusted God and not his own way of thinking.

Just because we are Christians doesn’t mean that we have a life of ease. Rather, we know that as long as we are in the world, we will have to face the dif­fi­cul­ties of being “not of this world.” Temptations will assail us. Persecution for our beliefs will come. And sin’s awful effects of sick­ness and death will still be able to touch us. Christian through­out the world must face these things. But when they do, we have the promise that God “him­self restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”

We of course, have to remem­ber through­out this that it is by the power of God and not our­selves that we can do this. Again, humil­ity is the key. For it is always, “To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

Conclusion

When Peter wrote those words, he knew from a life’s time of expe­ri­ence that they were true. But I believe he could have writ­ten them the day after Pentecost as well. The mighty empow­er­ing of the Holy Spirit enabled Peter to stand up to a mock­ing crowd on the day of Pentecost and preach a ser­mon that saw 3000 peo­ple turn their lives over to Christ in response.

The bap­tism of the Holy Spirit on that day brought bold­ness into a small band of men and women that was lack­ing just a few days ear­lier. That small group was soon faced with per­se­cu­tion and even the mar­tyr­dom of one of their lead­ers not many days lat­ter. Where they could have been anx­ious about every­thing that faced them, instead they could turn every­thing they owned over to God and become a mighty army for the Lord.

I believe that it is this empow­er­ing of the Holy Spirit which both helps us stay hum­ble before the Lord and enables us to face all that would oth­er­wise over­whelm us. It is some­thing that Peter would have assumed that his read­ers had under­stood and expe­ri­enced. Without the Spirit, it is impos­si­ble for us to take our eyes off our­selves and our prob­lems. With the Spirit and the power He gives us, we can eas­ily cast our anx­i­eties on Christ. One of the things Peter said on that day of Pentecost, we all need to con­tinue to hear today. He told the crowd they they too could “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, and your chil­dren, and for those who are far off–for all whom the Lord will call.” As we accept this gift, we will be empow­ered to do great works for God, set­ting aside all fears of the day for, God Care for You.

This les­son was writ­ten by William Reveal. Jan. 1997