Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, wrote the following to Christians who were facing severe persecution in the 1st century and had every excuse to be anxious: ‘Casting all your care upon Him {God}, for He cares for you’, 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 7.
It is possible that Peter had in mind an event that took place a few days prior to the crucifixion of Jesus, commonly referred to as Palm Sunday. On that day Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey that no one had ever sat on before. Crowds gathered to greet Him as He rode into the city in triumph. Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us in their Gospels that the people threw their garments on the donkey’s back and Jesus sat on them. Peter was present at the time and would have seen them doing this. Interestingly, he employed the same Greek word for ‘threw’, when encouraging Christians to ‘cast’ their care on God. The crowds at Jerusalem only did this once and there is no indication that any of them asked for their garments to be returned at the end of Jesus’s journey!
Peter is telling us to do the same thing with our ‘care (worry)’, i.e. cast it (like a garment} as a once-for-all act on God, in the knowledge that He cares for us and will never forsake us. Just as the crowds did not ask for the return of their garments, we can leave all our anxiety with the Lord and enjoy the experience of living in ‘an anxiety-free zone’. A hymn writer expressed it in this way:
All your anxiety, all your care,
Bring to the mercy-seat,
Leave it there.
Never a burden He cannot bear,
Never a Friend like Jesus!
We do pray these messages will bring you to know the Lord Jesus, the true Friend. We will gladly send you a Bible and help answer any questions you may have. We will pray for you. Come back again for another Message of Hope.