What 1 Peter 5:7 Means: Cast All Your Anxiety On Him
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
Worry and anxiety have a way of creeping into our lives. Often we find ourselves controlled by them. The pressure to succeed, the fear of the unknown, the burdens we carry, the burdens we carry for others. We bear a heavy weight.
And the reality is when we try to manage these anxieties on our own, they can leave us feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and defeated. Maybe you’ve felt that way, or maybe you feel that way right now.
In a world riddled with worries and anxieties this 1 Peter 5:7 throws us a lifeline. God invites us to cast all our anxieties on him. This verse is breath of fresh air. Not only does God care, he wants to help us.
In this post we are going to explore what 1 Peter 5:7 means. And I believe this verse will offer you hope and encouragement. In it you will see God’s love for you and experience his care.
Let’s explore the meaning of 1 Peter 5:7 and discover how we can release our worries to the One who is both willing and able to carry them.
The Context Of 1 Peter 5:7
The Apostle Peter wrote this letter late in his life to encourage those facing persecution for their faith. The message he gives them is to stand firm on the Gospel and what Jesus has done for them.
Following Jesus was becoming increasingly difficult and costly for the early church. Peter was no stranger to the trials these Christians were facing. He’d been flogged, beaten, and thrown in prison multiple times. He writes from his personal experience to encourage them. God will come through, and he cares deeply for them.
As he ends his letter he gives his readers some words of encouragement as they are overwhelmed with the burdens of the world.
In 1 Peter 5:6 he says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”
In other words, we must not seek our own glory and rather accept the work of submitting and serving those around us. This is the goal and responsibility of Christians.
Yet, this can also lead to difficulties in this life. Paul knows this and that’s what leads to his next thought which is an incredible piece of encouragement and hope.
Let’s dive into the 1 Peter 5:7 meaning to see what it holds for us today.
What 1 Peter 5:7 Means
To help us better understand the meaning of 1 Peter 5:7 we are going to break down this verse into two sections. This will help us see what Peter is saying to us today. Once we understand this passage we will look at how we can apply it to our lives today.
Cast All Your Anxiety On Him…
The pressures and burdens of this life are heavy and difficult. When we try to carry them on our own we will find ourselves weary. But God has a better way.
Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
He invites us to be yoked to him. In this way we aren’t shouldering the burdens ourselves. Jesus is doing the heavy lifting for us.
Similarly, casting our cares and anxieties on him means that we are moving from trusting our knowledge and abilities to trusting God and resting in his provision.
The image of casting our worries upon God is fitting. We don’t just tell God our worries; we cast, or throw, them onto him. We don’t need to sugarcoat them or pretend to have more faith than we really do. God is willing and capable to carry even our heaviest burden.
Get rid of your worries, throw them onto God. He is our burden carrier.
Because He Cares For You…
Peter tells us why God is willing to do this for us. Because he cares about you.
Our God isn’t an impersonal God that simply wants subservience. No, he wants a relationship. He cares deeply for you and what you are going through.
One of the most incredible moments in the entire Bible is when Jesus wept (John 11:35). He is showing the deep empathy he feels for his people.
God isn’t a distant God who doesn’t care about our problems. No, he’s deeply invested in you. He cares about you in a way that you and I cannot even fathom. He weeps with us.
He doesn’t look at your problems and think you should just get over it, deal with it, or move past it. Even though he knows that what we are facing is temporary. Instead he chooses to sit with us in it.
We can cast all our worries and anxieties on him because he cares for us.
How To Cast All Your Anxiety On God
Let’s end by looking at how we can practically cast our anxieties on God.
Pray… Continually.
Prayer is how we can give our worries to God. Each one. We don’t need to sugarcoat them or downplay our pain. We can simply tell God what we are feeling and worried about.
We don’t just pray once. We pray continually. Each time a worry comes up we turn around and give it straight to God. This is a daily, or maybe even hourly, practice. Each time we face a trial we give it to God.
Remind Yourself Of What’s True
When we face trials and challenges it’s tempting to stop looking at and trusting God. We tend to focus instead on what’s in front of us and the fear that is building.
That’s why it’s so important that we make it a regular practice to remind ourselves of the promises of God.
In those moments we must continually tell ourselves: He is with me. He cares about me. He will sustain me. He loves me. He will get me through this.
Turning to verses like 1 Peter 5:7 can be powerful reminders of what God has done and will do for us.
Allow Others To Encourage You
In this passage Peter is reminding and encouraging Christians facing incredible hardships. There’s power in community and doing life together.
I see time and time again when someone faces something difficult they withdraw. But we need each other, especially in our hardest seasons.
Sometimes you need help casting your anxieties on God. You need someone to help you lift those worries high enough so that you can throw them. That’s the beauty of Christian community. You not only have a God who cares about you, but people beside you helping and encouraging you.
Final Thoughts On 1 Peter 5:7
God cares for you. He cares about what you are going through. Think about that for a minute. The creator of the universe has a vested interest in you.
Therefore, because of that, you can cast all your anxiety on him. He will sustain you with peace that passes the understanding of humans.
Take some time today to reflect on this and turn over your worries. Step into the life that he has for you.
I have read these verses about worry and anxiety before and they always leave me feeling so…lacking. The Bible is big on advice couched in eloquent phrases but short on instructions on how to implement the advice. This is just my opinion-I don’t think it is the truth. And my opinion is the result of my frustration with my frequent inability to interpret the Bible.
So, thank you for explaining what “casting your anxiety on God” actually means.
I have to admit though, all my prayers in which I share my anxiety with God have yet to bring me the peace of God or rest for my soul.
It’s a great comfort to know that He cares in a personal way. The pastor of my church is a wonderful man and a great pastor. However, his sermons lately dwell so much on our human propensity to sin and our unworthiness of God’s grace. While it is true that even the best most devout Christian sins occasionally and salvation cannot be “earned,” it is depressing to hear nothing but that about God. I suppose it is his job to say things like that, but it would be nice if he would say something about God’s love for us, the love that is the reason he extended grace to us in the first place. Today, he referred to us as “miserable sinners” and implied that God would want nothing to do with us if we had not been justified by Christ’s work on the cross. I know salvation comes through faith in Jesus (trust that his sacrifice is our salvation and no works on our part are necessary) but I don’t think God saw us as utterly repugnant or He would not have offered salvation in the first place. I might be wrong about that, but the fact remains I am weary of hearing how awful I am when I am trying so hard to please God by avoiding sin to the best of my ability. So, on this particular morning, this article did a great job of reminding and convincing me that God truly does love me.
I will agree it’s very hard to stay strong when you’re reminded of how bad we are that is why most people turn away from God and there will much less good in the world due to the effects of what people preach today, I view over and over so many preacher’s in many religions think it is their job to judge but they forget they’re here to inspire people to speak the truth about God and what is God love, he speaks of some sin that he won’t forgive us of but he doesn’t tell us to bash or mistreat our neighbors with it instead he tells us to love our neighbors to follow Jesus example and Jesus still loved the wicked even until the very end. So when we preach we are supposed to teach with love.