7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:7-8

What does it mean to cast “all your anxiety on Him?” In our daily lives, we encounter many situations, relationships, and thoughts which bring us stress. Over a lifetime, we encounter not just 10, 100, or even 1000 things which can cause us to be anxious but an uncountable number. With family, society, church, nation, our world, work, finances, past, present, future, and even God – we have numerous relationships in our lives which can be a source of our anxieties.

Does “casting all your anxiety on Him” mean we should throw them all aside, discard any responsibility for them, and leave it up to God to handle? Buddhist believe that, if we can detach ourselves from all worldly matters – and even ourselves, we gain everything. But is this what the Bible is teaching us here? Someone who removes themselves from the world, who discards everything, who does not care about family, work, or anything, and who follows only their wisdom is irresponsible to society and the worst kind of failure. This is someone who has no salvation. God does not want us to abandon the world and all our relationships. Nor does God want us to act completely on our own. In fact, if we live purely based on our own desires and purpose, we will fail. 

God wants us to learn His Truth, to follow His wisdom, direction, and purpose in how we live and act. “Casting all your anxieties on Him” means to do two things. First, we must earnestly seek God’s direction when we face our anxieties, and second, we must live and act as God directs knowing that God will take responsibility for us when we obey him. How do we seek God’s direction? We must use a believer’s conscience to live in the right way. A believer’s conscience is one driven by an obedience to God’s commandments. We must study and contemplate God’s Word. When we faithfully devote ourselves to this, we will receive the inspiration of the Holy Spirit which works above the Word of the Bible. This is where we have the “ear” to hear God’s direction.

Entrusting God must be complete. It must include “all your anxieties.” We must obey not only when it is easy but also when it becomes challenging. Inevitably, when we try to follow God’s direction, there will be times when we will face threats to things we cherish and hold dear. It may be our family, our job, or our safety which come into danger, but we must seek God’s direction and act at those moments according to His will, entrusting that, when we act in obedience, God will take responsibility for us. This is what it means to cast “all your anxieties on Him.”  Does this mean we do not care about our family, our jobs, and safety?  No. It means we believe in our hearts that the best thing we can do for them is to obey God’s truth because this brings His blessings to us to deliver the outcome which is the best for our ultimate salvation. 

We must also know that we cannot do this on our own. When our desires supersede God’s direction, no matter how much skill or power we believe we have, we will fail. Only with God’s help will we be able to follow the right path to persevere and overcome our anxieties. God is the one who sends these challenges our way to develop and build our faith. Do not be careless and act according to your own purpose. More and more responsibility will come to us in the form of hardships and challenges. This is how we grow and perfect our faith. We must seek God’s guidance and trust Him to give us the right direction and know, if we follow that direction, God will enable us to overcome and succeed. This is entrusting God. This is what this passage is teaching us.

If God says keep this or throw it away, think in this or that way, follow this path or not, take or leave, fear or take courage, we must do exactly as God directs in each case, one by one, guided by our conscience directed by God’s wisdom. God will take responsibility for us. This is why the true believer is impervious to all worldly threats. When calamity comes our way, we must cast “all our anxieties on Him” and trust in God’s power to ensure our success and eternal salvation.

Click for Korean sermon https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1981-7-29-mixdown-12