Truth to Overcoming Anxiety
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Now, you might look at our verse and think to yourself, Ya think I haven’t tried that one before? This verse standing on its own might seem like the same flippant response that a friend might say to you when they’re trying to be helpful: “Vera, just give your anxious thoughts to God.” But as we dive into this verse and the surrounding passages, we’ll unpack deep riches and otherworldly peace. What we want is a magic wand to wave over our anxiety and make it all go away, but what we will get is a deep understanding of God in the midst of our right now.
Our verse comes in the middle of a letter written by Peter, one of Jesus’s main dudes. In fact, Jesus told Peter he would be the rock on which the church was built. Peter is writing this letter to encourage the church, the followers of Jesus throughout the world. In this chapter, I just want you to know that I’m going to be referencing all different parts of his letter to help us understand the bigger picture of what Peter was saying. If you have time, right now would be a great time to just take fifteen minutes and read that letter called 1 Peter. If you don’t have a Bible handy, you can Google it; we use the NIV translation. Even though our verse doesn’t come until chapter 5, I want to start our discussion with how Peter starts off his letter:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:3–7
Y’all, we could just bask in that glorious passage for a good long time, am I right? If that’s you right now, go on ahead. For the rest of us, stick around as we unpack this passage together. I want you to see that before Peter teaches them anything at all, and well before we get to our verse, he reminds them of this foundational truth: because Jesus has conquered death itself, we can have a living (not dead) hope for a new life that’s no longer riddled by our old self’s struggles (like our sin and this fallen world and the resulting anxiety it brings us). As followers of Jesus, we have a living hope for heaven, where struggle and sin and suffering (and anxiety) are completely eliminated. But while we’re still living in the struggles of this world, we can keep the faith because God will shield us by his power. And in the end, though we’ve endured all kinds of trials (like anxiety), we will have a strong faith! And what’s more? We will get to share in the praise, glory, and honor of God!
Yes, yes, yes!
Peter knew that followers of Jesus needed to first and foremost be reminded of the reality of their situation in light of Jesus and what he has done! Surely his friends still struggled, surely they were anxious. Otherwise, why would our verse even be in this letter? And surely they would continue to struggle with the same sorts of things as long as they drew breath. But in the midst of their struggle and their anxiety, Peter reminds them of the truth of Jesus and the reality of his victory for all time. So, when we’re facing something hard, like trying to overcome our anxious thoughts, we need to be reminded of the living hope that Jesus was raised from the dead! He conquered every hard thing when he conquered the grave. If Jesus was raised from the dead, anything is possible. Even being freed of our anxiety!
Anxiety is hard.
Jesus was raised from the dead.
Amen!
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). I can’t tell you how eager I am to live out our verse! I want to cast my anxieties at the feet of Jesus. I want to believe that he cares for me. And I know you want to believe that too! But there are these negative thoughts, lies really, that we’re believing that keep us from doing so. We might know in our minds that God is in control, but our practical response is anxiety. Our hearts still race with worry, telling us that our mind is wrong. In order to fight our anxious thoughts with God’s truth, we must first see what the root of that anxiety is. There are three basic types of lies that cause our anxiety; let’s take a look.
Throughout his letter, Peter addresses the struggles his friends have been facing. These are the very things that are giving them anxiety, the things Peter is encouraging them to give to God. And if we flip back just one chapter before our verse, we see him address the stark reality of their struggle. Peter’s friends are facing persecution, trials, and all sorts of suffering, and he draws attention to the temptation we all have to elevate our struggles above God.
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
1 Peter 4:12–13
It’s no secret that life is hard! Yet I often look at my own “fiery ordeal,” and I am bewildered! Sometimes it feels like life is happening to me, that my situation is master over me, and I am subject to its bidding. Have you been there before? It’s during times like this that we are tempted to think:
- If only my situation were different, then I wouldn’t be anx- ious anymore.
- If only I had more money, then I wouldn’t be anxious anymore.
- If only I had a clean bill of health, then I wouldn’t be anxious anymore.
- If only my kids were on the right path, then I wouldn’t be anxious anymore.
- If only I were married, then I wouldn’t be anxious anymore.
- If only I were more successful at work, then I wouldn’t be anxious anymore.
It feels like our situation is just too much for us. It’s overwhelming and impossible. There’s nothing we can do. Our situation is in control. It is the thing, the focus; we see it above and before everything else, even God.
I’ll say it again. God is in control. Not my situation, not yours. It might feel like our situations are in control because they are right up in our grills. We wake up to them in the morning. They persist through the night. They never stop happening to us. Notice that Peter says, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). We may be surprised at the hardships in our life, but you know who isn’t? God. He isn’t surprised at all. He knows. He sees. And he has a plan. The next verse tells us that suffering is not the end of his plan for those who suffer according to his will. Again, Peter reminds us of the living hope we have in Jesus, that he will return, and that we will “be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (v. 13). There is more going on than what we can see in our little corner of the world at this specific time. God knows all and sees all for all time. He has a plan, and he is God, so we can trust that he will execute it. Our God is not detached or unaware of our struggles. This is why Peter can tell his friends (and us) in 1 Peter 5:7 to “cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
Adapted from Dwell Differently by Natalie Abbott and Vera Schmitz, provided by Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Copyright 2024. Used with permission.
About the Authors
Natalie Abbott and Vera Schmitz are the cofounders of Dwell Differently, a vibrant online community committed to memorizing one million Bible verses together. Cohosts of the popular Dwell Differently podcast, they are sisters and also the authors of the forthcoming book, Dwell Differently: Overcome Negative Thinking with the Simple Practice of Memorizing God’s Truth.
About Dwell Differently
There is more power, more truth, more goodness, and more knowledge of God himself in his Word than in any other earthly thing. And while we long to connect with God through the practice of memorizing and meditating on his Word, so often we struggle to do so. We need a simple way to memorize God’s Word! And that is precisely what Dwell Differently provides. Dwell Differently creates beautiful, easy-to-use Bible memory tools and resources to help people of all ages memorize, meditate on, and apply God’s truth to their everyday lives, so they can not only know God’s Word, but know Him.
