If we aren’t careful, we’ll fall into the trap of reading right past some of the most important words in the Bible just because they’re small.
Take, for example, a small word in this short verse.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7 NIV)
When I read that verse, I start looking for words to do a deep dive on in an app like Blue Letter Bible. While that’s a great way to get a fuller understanding of the Greek words for “cast” or “anxiety” or “cares” used in the verse, it completely bypasses perhaps the strongest word of all.
Wait, that’s the word. All.
I think a lot of us agree that we should allow the Lord to carry the really big anxieties that we obviously can’t handle, but the point of the promise is that He wants them all. The ones you can’t handle and the ones you can. Why? Because He knows that we weren’t made to carry cares.
The way anxiety weighs us down isn’t usually through one gigantic anxious moment, but rather through one small anxiety that we can handle carried on top of another one we can handle that’s already been placed on top of another care we felt we could handle.
On and on it goes until we break, and nobody recognizes that what broke us wasn’t the big one, but the fractures caused by all the little ones we tried to carry on our own.
Strength doesn’t come from carrying anxiety alone. There are no martyrs needed here. What makes us stronger is allowing our Lord to care for us, to heal us, to build us up on the inside.
According to the truth of that verse, the only way for that to happen is for us to give Him all the anxieties that keep us from being close to Him.
And yes, all means all.
