Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. ~ 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)

“Cast” is such a great word used by Peter; a fisherman himself. Growing up on Skaneateles Lake, it was a word familiar to me from the days I first learned how to fish with my rod and Zebco reel. To cast with the fishing rod is to fling & release. Fling is the rod action of sending the hook or lure on the line in fast motion away from you out onto the water. Release is letting go of my thumb control on the reel (Zebco), allowing the line to freely flow out with no resistance. The second action must occur almost simultaneously with the first. It required precise coordination and perfect timing.

The word comes from the fishing method of casting a seine net (circular) out in an arc over the water in hopes of netting a school of fish. The point in this powerful verse is that my anxiety (whatever the cause) I must prayerfully take and cast it all on the Lord. That anxiety which I have held on to, in my hands and head, that which I have somehow “kept under my thumb” I must fling it (“hook, line and sinker”) away from me, and on to Him, but at the same time release my grip on it. If I try to fling it without releasing my grip, it will come right back around on the rod at me with great force. Not good! Certainly no way to catch fish.

As a young boy I had to be taught how to rightly cast, so that the lure would smoothly sail way out from my rod. The action wasn’t natural, but with practice it became so. As a father I taught my own son, and then, decades later, I had a chance to teach my young grandson. The same is true in my being taught how to rightly pray about my anxiety. It has taken much practice over the years, but it has lead me to teach others to pray about their anxiety by casting it all on to Him; fling AND release.

[Prayer] Lord, teach me how to cast so that I may better fish…

—RWO/MAST