6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7
This is Peter the fisherman writing, who knew all about casting (and empty nets and full nets and frustration and miraculous results); it seems fitting he would relate what to do with our anxieties and concerns to something he was familiar with in daily life.
With fishing in general, the goal is to catch some water-based somethings, to bring them in for whatever the desired benefit—profit, food, etc. One way is to launch an empty net into a body of water with the expectation that it will be stuffed to capacity when pulled back in.
Catching and filling, catching and filling.
I read an article that referenced verse 7 where the writer prompted to visualize a net filled to overflowing with all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns…then casting it on God. Picturing this way, it seems that Peter is describing the opposite of what he would do to bring in a boatload of fish: Start with a full net instead, loaded with all your cares, then cast it on the Body of Living Water, in which they’ll be loosed and let go, plunging into the depths of Him, disappearing out of reach.
Releasing… emptying.
It’s interesting that humbling yourself and giving your cares to Him are both part of this same command, like what does one have to do with the other? Actually, they’re sandwiched in between verses 5 and 8. Five tells us to be submissive to one another, to wear humility like clothing, and how it won’t be God-good for us to be proud. Eight begins with instructions to be self-controlled, vigilant, watchful… hmmm, that seems a little more extreme; why the almost urgent tone change from just being submissive and humble and giving up our cares? Eight finishes with the other reason why we’re given this whole block of instructions: our adversary the devil is circling, watching for a misstep so he can pounce and try to take us down.
Now we see, right in the middle of being submissive and not proud, and being self-controlled and vigilant, is humbling ourselves (submitting) under God’s mighty hand by giving over to Him all the things that might hinder us in any of these areas. In context, it makes a little more sense how all these actions, ours and His, work together to ready us for obedient surrender and be able to resist enemy attack. How can we get low in a submissive posture if our hands (heart, thoughts) are full? How can we control our complicated selves, be watchful, nimble, and ready for resistance with our arms wrapped around a bulky pack blocking our view?
He cares for us! He knows what our concerns, anxieties, and fears are doing, what an unnecessary load those can be. As a kind, loving Father, He doesn’t want that for us! Think about how you feel seeing friends or loved ones stressed to the max, what-iffing and what-abouting, not eating or sleeping, constantly fearful, hopeless, or drowning in their coping mechanism of choice. We hate that for them (and for ourselves having to watch it all play out), the not-peaceful burdens of stress and fear. Times infinity is how much God cares about all this for us, just as a father who loves would never want their child to hurt, flail hopelessly, or stumble under the weight of worry. He’s a faithful Father who is always nearby, hand reaching out, saying, “Here, let Me have that; it’ll be better if I help you.”
So what is it really, this giving Him our concerns, apprehensions, stresses? And what does that look like for us after we do? Does it mean they don’t cross our mind any more?
When we open our worry-grip and release it to Him, that’s a control and authority shift, from our control and perceived authority into His control and supreme authority. But what we’re truly giving Him? Our faith. Our trust. Isn’t that what it takes to let go of these things that are such a big deal to us? Here, it’s really too much for me; I don’t know what else to do. What we have to remember is He cares more than we do (yes, it’s possible!) and He is more than worthy of our trust!
Once we have this “transfer of control”, if or when these concerns or situations come to mind or stand screaming in front of us, now we get to declare God’s promises over them instead of what we used to do; we speak HIS words, life words, truth. Then we get to see HIM work in it, in His higher ways, and give Him the glory in working it for our good (even if it doesn’t always appear good at the time). (BONUS: All this causes our faith to rise up and get stronger!)
In a way I thought this featured image was ridiculous – seriously, how can this be? But if someone could take a photo of the cares, worries, anxieties that I’ve tried to carefully balance so as to keep moving and not tip over, I bet it would look equally as unmanageable. How about you?
Can you imagine what this person’s ride is like after unloading all this hay?
Scripture reference – let the word speak to you personally!
1 Peter 5:5-11
Proverbs 3:5-6
Philippians 4:6-7
Matthew 11:28-30 NLT
Romans 8:28
1 John 4:9,10,16
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image by ray harrington on unsplash