Cast All Your Anxiety: When Your Emotions are Too Much

For today’s meditation, we’re going to discuss what to do when our anxiety is threatening to overwhelm us. God calls us to cast all our anxiety onto Him – because He cares.

There’s been a lot going on these days. It seems like the moment we turn around, 2020 is like, “But wait, there’s more!” 

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s felt overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, heartbroken, and all sorts of other unidentifiable emotions. 

I have to be honest: it’s tempting for me to just stick my head in the sand and pretend it’s all not happening. To not watch the news or social media, to detach and shut down. 

Of course, there’s a place for boundaries and taking care of your mental/emotional/spiritual wellbeing, but that’s not what I’m talking about. 

I believe Jesus wants us to deal with the emotions – the deep, roiling, burdening emotions. He wants us to be honest about them with Him, and then He wants us to cast them onto Him. 

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.

Psalm 55:22

This past weekend we went to a friend’s house on the water and I watched their 5-year-old son fish. It was incredible. With a full-sized pole, this child was flinging out the line as hard as he possibly could: he held the pole with both hands, flung it back behind his head, and then with as much force as he could muster, he cast the line into the water. Again and again.

I was amazed.

Thinking about this verse as I recall Jayden’s casting, I realize how pathetic my “casting” is. When I cast my anxieties on God, it’s like I’m just barely letting go of the line, plopping it pathetically into the water right in front of me where I can still see it and ruminate on it. When really I should be flinging those burdens as hard as I can toward the God who cares. 

Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7

But of course, if I’m not willing to face those burdens and be honest about them, how can I even cast them away? Sometimes I’m so adept at squashing my own emotions that I can’t even deal with them adequately when it’s appropriate. 

This is particularly true with my chronic pain. I’m so quick to squelch any feelings I have when I’m in pain that it eventually forces its way up like bile. This ends with me snapping at my husband and getting easily irritated with my kids. This can’t be what God intended for my emotions. 

So what should I do with these burdens, these cares of mine? I need to fling them to God as hard and fast as I possibly can. Over and over again. 

Mama, do you have cares that you need to throw to God? Do you have any deep-seated emotions that you haven’t been honest about with yourself or God? I encourage you to explore what you’re feeling, write about it, pray about it, and then fling it to the God who wants to carry it for you. Because He cares for you. 

And His promise to us is that He will sustain us. Yes, we may be walking through the driest, darkest valley – but He will nourish us and get us through. He will not allow us to be shaken if we hold tight to Him. 

So, mamas, this week let’s decide to let go of our burdens and fling our anxieties onto our caring and compassionate God. Instead of holding tight to fear, let’s cling to our Almighty God who will sustain us through this present darkness.