To Encourage You

1 Peter 5:7 “Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

Anxiety plagues our age.  Mental anguish, depression, worry, whatever you call it, it’s everywhere and affects everyone at one time or another.  For some it’s a never-ending battle.  It’s simply a fact of life as one looks to the future and fear sets in on issues related to our jobs, health, relationships, finances, etc., etc. 

So, what’s the answer?  Is there one? Is it some drug, or some self-help method?  Go into any bookstore – people are making a fortune selling books on how to cope.  Yet the Bible tells us to “be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6). So, what is one to do with anxiety? 

One thing we shouldn’t do is ignore it or pretend it doesn’t exist.  Anxiety comes to everyone sooner or later, although the things that bring it on differ among people.  What the Bible tells us to do with it is to cast it on Him, on Jesus.  The word “cast” in the original Greek language in which this verse was written means “to fling, with a quick motion.”  This reminds me of an incident the other day when I was playing a game on the Wii with my son.  As I was concentrating on the game, suddenly I noticed that a large stink bug was crawling up my neck.  I don’t know how something like that affects you, but it creeped me out.  And I didn’t just go on playing while that thing was on me.  I gave it a fling, immediately, as soon as I felt it. That’s the idea in 1 Peter 5:7. As soon as that anxious thought, no matter what it is, enters your mind, fling it away from you. Don’t’ let that irritating pest settle down in your mind, but immediately fling it from you. 

But how do you fling something from your mind?  And where do you fling it?  Peter tells us to cast it on Jesus.  He’s the Great Exterminator of anxiety, if you will. He will kill it for you if you give it to Him.  And how do you give it to Him?  Philippians 4:6 tells us.  It says, “Be anxious for nothing” but then it adds this: “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  We fling our anxious thoughts to God in prayer. That just simply means that we tell Him about it.  We don’t talk to ourselves about it and stew on it. That just magnifies anxiety.  No, we talk to the Lord about it.  He already knows about it – and He cares about it.  He cares about the fact that we have anxieties. He isn’t angry about it.  He knows that we are weak and that we have an enemy of our souls that specializes in encouraging anxiety.  But Jesus is stronger than the enemy.  And He is stronger than any anxiety.  He can eliminate it for us, if we’ll just go to Him with it and actually give it to Him.  It’s a battle for the mind, and a battle of faith.

But we have to really believe that He cares for us, and that what He has said to us about how to deal with anxiety is true.  Of course, if we don’t know Him, if we don’t believe in Him, then we’re left to who knows what other ways to deal with anxiety.  All those other ways aren’t based on the truth of the Comforter, so don’t be surprised if they don’t work.  It’s like anything else when we go elsewhere but to God’s Word to deal with it.  It’s as weak as we are because, at its root, it’s based on the dreamed-up ideas of men. 

So why in the world would we muddle through life plagued with anxiety that we can’t get rid of because we are banking on some alternative to the Truth?  If that’s been your approach, how’s it working out for you?  I have an idea I know the answer, for believe me, I, for one, have tried those same alternatives, and no, they didn’t work for me either.