Cast your cares on him

This continues my Lenten meditations on the peace of God in the face of human fear. 

"Cast all your cares on him, for he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:6-7)

I've often thought of this verse as referring only to prayer: that in prayer, I can cast my cares on God because he cares for us. Again, there is the reassurance of God's care for us, which anchors our prayers. Without belief in God's compassion, in God's mercy and loving kindness, there is no reason to pray.

And while those are good prayers, Peter wasn't necessarily talking about prayer alone. I find myself praying at certain times of the day, the worries and cares do not limit themselves to those times. "Pray without ceasing" as they say, but when worry seeps into my mind, I may want to let that be my prompt: "Take this. It's out of my control."

When I picked "addressing fear" as my Lenten meditation, I didn't have a clear picture of just what this spring would bring. I thought I would be working on my tendency to stress. As it turns out, I find it very stressful to have to wait in long lines to get into a grocery store where a number of the shelves are empty anyway. There was a "food insecurity" time in my life, years ago (a polite phrase for not knowing where my next meal was coming from or even what day it would be). And yet there was an act of God's particular providence where, after all, I didn't go hungry. And still there is a temptation to fear now.

I've often heard sermons about the Israelites in the desert, doubting God even after all he had done, sermons that call us to be sure of one thing: in their place we would have been no different. Even after seeing his deliverance, even while enjoying his providence, the people were still moved to fear. We are dust, therefore we fear: we know exactly how frail we are. And yet God loves us. We cast our cares on him for one reason: he cares for us. The thing is to keep my mind fixed more firmly on that.