Walking With Christ

1 Peter 5:6–7  (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.(ESV)

The danger after rest isn’t always rebellion.  Sometimes the danger is return.

Not returning to work.  Not returning to responsibility.  Not returning to ordinary life.  Those things aren’t the problem.

The danger is returning to the false yoke.  The danger is picking up the anxiety you just laid down because it feels familiar.  The danger is mistaking worry for love, overextension for faithfulness, and control for wisdom.  The danger is coming back from rest and immediately rebuilding the same prison, only this time with a fresh coat of paint.

Peter tells us to cast our anxieties on God because He cares for us.

That means anxiety isn’t something we’re meant to cradle, polish, justify, and protect.  It’s something we throw onto stronger shoulders.

But casting anxiety on God requires humility.

That’s the part we don’t always want to admit.

It takes humility to say, “I can’t carry this.”

It takes humility to say, “I’m not strong enough to hold everyone together.”

It takes humility to say, “My worry isn’t actually helping.”

It takes humility to say, “God cares more perfectly than I do.”

A lot of anxiety survives because it disguises itself as responsibility.  We think letting go means we don’t care.  But Peter says the opposite.  We cast our anxieties on God because He cares.

His care is the reason we can release what was crushing us.

Not because the situation doesn’t matter.  Because it matters to Him.

So don’t pick up what God never asked you to carry.

Pick up obedience.

Pick up love.

Pick up wisdom.

Pick up the work assigned to your hands.

But don’t pick up the godless weight of pretending everything depends on you.

That burden doesn’t make you holy.  It makes you tired, afraid, and eventually angry.

Cast it on Him.  And when your hands feel strangely empty, don’t rush to fill them again.

Empty hands are often what freedom feels like at first.