Casting seems so easy for those who know what they are doing. A good fisherman can cast with precision and place his lure in a precise area. Casting in the Bible is every bit an acquired skill through practice. Notice the admonish to take up your casting skills:
1 Peter 5:7 (ESV) — 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
Psalm 55:22 (ESV) — 22 Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
It’s very important to learn to cast your anxieties and your burdens on the Lord. That seems easy enough but many times we apply the same casting activity as a fisherman when we cast our anxieties and burdens to the Lord only to reel them back again. That is being double-minded. You are essentially saying to God that you cannot handle the burden or anxiety, so you cast it to Him through prayer only to pick it up again and find yourself under the heavy weight as you walk away.
James 1:5–8 (ESV) — 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Notice the burden is the heavy weight of not knowing what to do in a given matter, but finding great comfort in the promise that if you lack wisdom and ask, God will give it to you generously. Sounds like a good thing to do, right? Of course, but also notice the warning to ask in faith and not doubt. Doubting is coming away with the heavy burden of not knowing what to do even though you have just sought the Lord for wisdom based upon His promises. James goes so far as to say that you should not expect anything from the Lord with such poor casting skills. In other words, when you reel your burden back in and walk away with the burden you have not learn to cast according to God’s standard.
God’s standard of casting is casting and walking away because it’s a done deal.
Micah 7:19 (ESV) — 19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Isaiah 38:17 (ESV) — 17 Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
These word pictures are most precious as you think of your sins cast into the depths of the sea or cast behind the back of God especially when you understand that He does not reel back what He has cast away. Likewise, when we learn to really cast our burden and anxieties upon Him and avoid reeling them back, we find great pleasure and relief.
Go back to the original admonitions with promise – focusing on the promise is the key.
1 Peter 5:7 (ESV) — 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
Psalm 55:22 (ESV) — 22 Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
We cast our anxiety upon Him because He cares for us. We cast our burdens upon Him because He will sustain us and never permit us to be moved. That is worth the effort in learning to cast, believe His promises, and leave it with Him. It takes practice to avoid reeling back what you have just cast upon Him, but that is the only way to enjoy the promise and the only way to avoid the negative pledge that to be double minded means receiving nothing from the Lord. Ouch!
It’s time to learn to cast in a precise manner like a fisherman. Practice not reeling it back in, like God Himself. Aren’t you grateful that God doesn’t reel our sins back in to bring them up to us again?!
Godspeed,
Bob Brubaker
