Quite some time back I wrote about 'care-casting': explicitly giving God things I'm worried about, using a process I heard described by Gordon Smith, himself inspired by 1 Peter 5:7 "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you."
That text is part of a bigger passage in the letter the apostle Peter wrote to Christians who were being persecuted in modern-day Turkey. I've had this whole section up on my browser for the past week or so:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.
I'm currently dealing with two things I'm finding really hard. Both of them are things that I feel God has led us into; one is something I thought would be easy but has been quite hard (which I've been really frustrated by), the other is proving as hugely difficult as expected and is something I'd love to give up on. It's all been making me pretty anxious and making it hard to sleep.
So, nearly two weeks ago when I was taking a reflective Sabbath day, I realised I needed to be a bit more deliberate about 'care-casting'. I wrote out these two main things that I was anxious about, detailing what I was worried about and what I was finding hard, as well as two smaller things that were also bothering me that day.
The chap who'd talked about doing this drew his idea from two texts: the one from 1 Peter above, and Philippians 4:4-7. The 1 Peter one particularly resonated with me - in particular how it linked not being anxious to disciplining yourself, and how it said that discipline was needed because the devil is trying to devour you. I realised I'd been giving in to anxiety and was allowing that to devour me and steal my peace and my joy. I needed to ask God for the strength to not do that, and to be disciplined in that area. I've come back to that prayer a lot over the past two weeks and have been so much more at peace as a result.
I was also struck by the bit where it says: "Resist him... for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering."
I realised I was suffering because I was doing things I thought God wanted me to do. And that is something that happens to lots of Christians - indeed, it's something we should expect will happen to all of us, at least some of the time. And that's led me to pray for other Christians in similar situations. That's proved a surprisingly helpful way to deal with my anxieties - turning them into prayers for others.
So I've kept that text up on my computer the past wee while and I keep seeing more in it. Yesterday I noticed how it starts with 'humble yourself', and that was helpful in thinking about what I expect in life and what I feel I deserve - and how much pain can come from those expectations/thoughts.
Also, yesterday and today it's been so helpful reflecting on the Easter story. In particular, how Jesus went through terrible things at the hands of the people he loved - because that was what God the Father had called him to do, and because that was what loving people looked like for him at that time. And so, as I walk the path I think God the Father has called me to, I can look at how Jesus went through such vastly bigger difficulties on his path and how that was so worthwhile, and that also helps me to stick to the programme :-)
