Daily Reading: (1 Peter 5:5-7)
5 In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
The beauty of casting your anxiety on Him is that it is an indirect call to boldness and courage (1 Peter 5:7). Because the opposite of boldness is fear or anxiety. The threat in this text that tempts us to be anxious is actually humility. The reason for this is that pride essentially is a refusal to trust in God (Proverbs 28:25). Trust is the opposite of pride. It's the essence of humility. It's the confidence that the mighty hand of God is not over you to crush you but to care for you just like the promise says (1 Peter 5:7). The secret of humility is being able to cast your anxiety on God.
The NASB and the KJV don't have a period between verse six and seven of 1 Peter five because verse seven does not start a new sentence in the original Greek. Casting your anxiety on God is not simply a separate thing that you do after you humble yourself. It's something you do in order to humble yourself, or in the process of humbling yourself.
How Do You Cast Your Anxiety on God?
The word "casting" in verse 1 Peter 5:7 occurs one other time in the New Testament—in Luke 19:35, "They brought it to Jesus, and casting their garments on the colt, they set Jesus on it." So, the meaning is simple and straightforward: if you have a piece of clothing on and you want an animal to carry it for you, you "cast" the clothing on the animal. In this way you don't carry the load anymore it has been cast on another. How do you practically make the anxiety transfer from your back to God's back? Trust that He cares for you.