Last night at Bible study, the devotion shared at the start was on casting your cares on the Lord. Most Christians recognize that as being from either the Hebrew (Old Testament) Psalm 55:22 or the Greek (New Testament) 1 Peter 5:7. I can’t recall which verse the devotion was referring to, but the idea was that the word “cast” meant to hurl. Hurl! When I think of the word “hurl” (besides the slang…yuck!) I think of a violent pushing/throwing away as hard as I can. Like the javelin thrower in the image above. That’s what caught my attention the most so I decided to come home and do a little research. Then I decided to share it for this week’s Mindful Monday.
First the scriptures:
“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” -Psalm 55:22 (NIV)
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” -1 Peter 5:6-7 (I added verse 6 for context).
The Hebrew word for Cast in Psalm 55:22 is הַשְׁלֵ֤ךְ”shalak” (Strong’s Hebrew: 7993) הַשְׁלֵ֤ךְ עַל־ יְהוָ֨ה
It is a verb (an action word) meaning to cast away, pluck, hurl; to throw out, down or away (literally or figuratively) -adventure, cast away, cast down, cast forth, cast off, cast out. (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance)
The Greek word for Cast in 1 Peter 5:7 is ἐπιρρίπτω “epi and rhipto” meaning “I throw upon, cast upon” From epi and rhipto; to throw upon (literally or figuratively) — cast upon.
So yep…we are to basically hurl our cares/anxieties upon the Lord. Wow…that’s a new image for my brain to handle! But it’s right there. Hurl our cares, throw out our cares, cast out -upon the Lord. Cast out like a fishing line. I grew up fishing with my dad when we were camping so I know to cast a fishing line out; you don’t just drop it barely into the water sheepishly. You have to release the line and throw it over your head hard and let it go. Get that bad boy away from you and way out into the water where the fish are! In this case, God wants us to get our cares and anxieties away from us and to Him.
That kind of betrays many people’s version of God comparing him to Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. When she goes before the “great and powerful Oz” she was shaking in her ruby red slippers, scared out of her wits. For the Christian who is covered by the blood of Jesus, that’s not at all what God wants for us. Two verses come to mind as I write this:
“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” -Hebrews 4:16 (NLT)
“The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” – Romans 8:15 (NIV)
So there you have it. When you put all those passages together (taking into consideration their real ancient meanings and then Christ’s death for us on the cross) God wants us to come BOLDLY to Him as His precious children. Oh and you know what else? Abba means “daddy”. I’m picturing myself as Dorothy and at first shaking in my shoes but then remembering the blood of Jesus that covers me as a believer in Him which bridges the gap between God and I, the cares and anxieties I carry in my basket where little Toto used to be, I hurl to God with the false picture of God as Oz melting away and I boldly rush to the throne of God and climb on His lap and bury my head on His chest as daddy’s arms enfold me. The image of this is truly humbling to me as I realize how very deeply God loves me. I’m going to carry today’s message with me for a long time to come! I hope you do too!
Oh, one final thing. Keep in mind that Christ’s death on the cross seals the deal. If you are a follower of Jesus you adopt this concept as your own too. If you aren’t, no deal. Jesus’ blood covers you when you have received His gift of salvation as your own and when God the Father looks at you, He sees Jesus. Kind of like rose-colored glasses. He sees us through the blood of Christ shed on Calvary for the world. For whosoever will call upon Him. These can hurl their cares upon God and boldly run to Him as our Abba (daddy). Not sure where you stand? Please read my post here to help you further!)
If you know you are saved, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, then run, baby run! Hurl those cares! 🙂
