Throw it down!

Sunlight through snowy trees – photo by Jill Rushbrook

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

I started going to a gym and working with a personal trainer. One exercise with a kettle bell makes me nervous because I use all my force to swing it forward into the air from between my legs. As I was doing this motion, I thought, what if I let go? It would most certainly do some damage and put a decent dent in the wall. Part of me almost wanted to let it go, because how freeing would it feel to fling that ball of burden far from me. I’m positive my trainer would not approve…

But it got me thinking. I was holding on to so many cares in my life that felt like heavy weights dragging me down. In the gym, releasing the weights and letting them fly would not be a good idea. But in life, throwing your burdens down at the feet of Jesus is the best thing to do. God wants me to release my weights of worry on Him. And God, all powerful and mighty, can handle the heaviness that we release to Him. We don’t gain any strength from holding on and carrying these loads of lead. In fact, Jesus told us not to worry at all. “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:27) Worrying and carrying our own burdens doesn’t do any good or reap any benefit at all. In fact, it often does more harm than good. There is a saying that I have posted in my home office that says, “Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles. It takes away today’s peace.” How often do we waste time worrying when we can throw all our turbulent thoughts to God? Why not turn our preoccupations into prayers, letting go of what weighs us down?

God not only wants us to drop the weight of worry, but cast it onto him. To cast means “to cause to move or send forward by throwing.” And who are we sending forward our cast-iron-cares to? To the One who is more than capable of doing the impossible, who can do infinitely more than we can imagine or ask, and who is pleading with us to let it go, and throw it all on Him because He cares! “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” (Psalms 55:22 ) With faith, fling forward your concerns and cares, your worries and woes, on God whose strength never fails and will always handle whatever is thrown his way.