We are not orphans. We have a Father who greatly loves us. He wants us to live “casting all our anxieties and cares on him, because he cares for us” (1Pet.5:7). “When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations bring me joy” (Ps. 94:19).
Heavenly Father, I don’t mind “repeat casting.” It’s what all of us who love fishing do—fly fishers, bait casters, spin fishers. Casting multiple times is often necessary to catch an elusive, easily spooked, gorgeous trout. Getting better at casting is what we work on all the time.
And the same is true for us as your beloved children. But we don’t learn repeat casting to get, but to give—not to fill our ice chest with fish, but to empty our hearts of things that weigh us down, even paralyze us. It’s impossible to live life before Jesus’ second coming and not have anxieties, worries, and cares. What we do with those things is a Gospel issue—an Abba issue, because you greatly care for us. Hallelujah and thank you. Some of us are weighed down with health anxieties, others with financial worries, others with relational cares—there are as many cares as there is brokenness in the world.
So, Abba, with all the grace you will give us, with our grips relaxed and arms cocked for casting, we cast on you the things over which we have zero control—old stuff, new stuff, future stuff. We may need to do so an hour from now, and several more times today, and in the coming days. We may even need some friends to help us cast some of our heavier cares; but of this we can be certain, “when the cares and anxieties of our hearts multiply, your consolations bring us joy (Ps. 94:19). That you care for us and love us is our greatest consolation imaginable, Abba. So Very Amen.