Verse: 1 Peter 5:7
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Devotion
I hate this verse because it’s deceptively simple and easy to get wrong.

Just cast your cares! Easy. Oh, and you’re humble now, thanks to the previous verse that told you to be humble, so now you can just chillax and let Jesus take the wheel.

That works, or seems to work, when you’re dealing with things that are easy for you to let go of the control for. Sure God, you’re in charge, at least until something I actually care about is stolen from my grip of control.

But that’s the point of the Bible and God’s teachings, I think. They aren’t meant for the things we are naturally good at, or for the easy times. They are both a comfort and a pain for life’s difficult seasons. In this case, this is a painful verse, inside a painful passage, because it forces you to actually wrestle with yourself. Not easy.

I’m pretty chill about a lot of things. Most insults won’t bother me, I don’t stress much about changing plans, and I don’t mind other people having wildly different opinions from my own. So, it’s easy for me to think that I’m casting my cares on God and humbling myself, but in reality I just didn’t care in the first place.

But when things came along that actually challenged me, like financial instability or family health problems, I realized that I had done approximately zero work of humbling myself or casting cares. Oops!

So, what is it that’s actually scary for you to give up control over? What do you consider yourself good at, or exceptional at, that if circumstances changed negatively, would throw you for a loop?

Relationships? Finances?

Health? Reputation?

Dig into your heart here for a bit and see if you’ve actually allowed God to be involved in these parts of your life much, or if you’re just pushing forward on your own.

Prayer
God, show me where I am trying to control my own life without involving you. You  are all-powerful, and I’m not. Please take charge of this for me so I can have peace.

Author: Jordan Ambra